All's Fair In Love And War
by Twisted Bloodlust
Summary: Bella meet's Edward when she moves to Forks with her brother, Emmett, and her depressant mother. Edward's the typical, arrogant popular guy and Bella might just have what it takes to tame his wild side.
1. Ch1 First Day

Hey all, I'm back with a new idea. Let's see how we like this one. Unless I state otherwise the following is still valid: I don't own Twilight, neither the book or movie form, Stephenie Meyer owns the books and Summit owns the rights to the movies. I don't own the characters or the names. I do however own the rights to this plot and since it's a rather meager ammount in the general scheme I implore you not to steal it or claim it as your own. If you want to post it somewhere else, so long as you put my penname and this website I'll be happy. I'm not going to repeat myself at the beginning of each chapter so no boring disclaimers. YAY.

**Chapter One**

_**First Day**_

"_I wish people who have trouble communicating would just shut up." _Tom Lehrer.

_**Bella POV**_

'_God I hate going to new schools. Everyone looks at me, they seem to think I want them to talk to me and on top of that I always get lost at some point in the first week.' _I sighed as Emmett pulled the car into the parking lot at Forks High School, _Home of the Spartans_ as the sign stated.

"Bells, you need to relax. Do you really think anyone's going to hastle you with a brother like me?" Emmett raised his eyebrows with an impish grin as he flexed his muscles. The guy was the real life equivelent of The Hulk.

"It's not the possibility of bullying I'm concerned about. They always want to be my best friend and I'm not in the mood to smile politely and nod. I can barely nod." I stepped out of the car and looked up at the concrete building, well, it was definately a high school. My palms were sweating already.

"Fake it till you make it, Bells. Fake it till you make it." He walked around and gave me a pat on the shoulder as we walked into the school in search of the office.

"How are you not atleast a little depressed? Dad's not just on another tour, he's gone." I looked down at the floor as we walked.

"Fake it till you make it." Emmett repeated. "Do you really think the guy that came home for halloween just to scare the bejebers out of children would want us to be sad? I bet every funny thing that happens to us is in some way his fault. You under estimate how far you are from a chair and fall on your arse, it was probably dad pulling your chair back from you for a laugh."

I shook my head as a smile came over my face, he was right. "So you think the water bouncing off that plate this morning wasn't just a coincidence, dad sprayed me in the face for a laugh?"

"Most definately." He nodded and chuckled a few times. "You'll learn to be happy again."

"Mom hasn't. She's getting worse..." My smile faltered.

"Hey! Don't slip with her. I can't handle both my girls down and out." Emmett knocked me in the arm till I stumbled. "You have to catch yourself." he grabbed my arm before I hit the ground.

"It'd help if I wasn't pushed. Yeah alright, I get what you're saying. If I _pretend _to be where I _want_ to be I'll get there." I pulled a very large, very fake, extremely toothy grin.

"Oh that's just hideous." Emmett laughed, "Good work."

"My cheeks hurt." I dropped the smile and rubbed my jaw.

"Well pull it back up, here's the office." He pushed the door open and bowed, "Your highness..."

"Thank you court jester." I rolled my eyes and pulled my face into a more normal looking smile.

"Hey, we're here for the big show!" Emmett's booming voice startled the lady sitting behind the desk. '_Mrs. Cope_' was written on a small brass triangle sitting on the wall dividing us.

"Oh my... Hello." She stuttered. I elbowed Emmett in the ribs and pushed him back a bit, he was never really good with people.

"Hi, I'm Isabella Dwyer and this is my brother Emmett. We're new here." I smiled the plaster smile as she regained composure and started ruffling through papers.

"Class schedule, map, book list." She handed us each a handful of papers.

"Thank's hot stuff." Emmett smiled cheekily "I'm off to gym so I'll see you at lunch, Bells."

With that Emmett bounced off, in a way only Emmett could.

"Don't worry, I'm 5'4" and I can wrangle him. He's a puppy, a big one, but nothing more then an overgrown kid." I tried to reassure Mrs. Cope as I walked out into the hall, studying my class schedule.

"Oh great, another fascinating hour of English. Does anyone not notice that this is America, we speak English as the primary language." I said under my breath then looked around and realized I was entirely alone.

Mr. Mason seemed normal from a distance, that was until...

"Will you please state your name, age, something interesting about yourself and why you moved here." He waved at the class then returned to his papers.

"Do I have to?" I whispered.

"Yes." Was all the reply I got.

"Hello, hi, I'm Isabella but everyone just calls me Bella, I'm sixteen. Something interesting, um... I have one blue eye and one brown eye, hope that doesn't freak anyone out. I moved here because my dad got... my dad...my." I could feel my tears starting to warm my face as I thought of my father.

"That will do, take the seat there." Mr. Mason pointed at an empty chair in the second row and I blinked back my tears and quickly sat down. I could feel everyone's stares at me as the lesson started.

"Hi." An all too cheery voice said beside me. I turned and came face to face with barbie herself.

"I'm Jessica, you're Isabella right?" She smiled, it seemed almost as forced as mine. _You're Isabella right? Ha! No, I just said that a moment ago to be funny._

"Yes but just call me Bella. It's nice to meet you." I said in a quiet tone.

"So how are you liking it here? In Forks I mean." She twirled a lock of her blonde hair around her finger and kept glancing further down the isle at a guy who was shamelessly staring at us. He had one of those 'dull and useless' looks about him.

"It's different. I've never lived somewhere this small before. We used to live in D.C so I guess it's Washington to Washington." I tried and failed miserably in my attempt to sound connected with the conversation.

"Wow, D.C. What was that like?" She pressed, I really didn't feel like answering questions so I opened my book and started writing, "Well it was very crowded, other than that, nothing too interesting." I shrugged.

"Oh. So do you have anyone to have lunch with? I'm sure my friends wouldn't mind if you sat with us." She glanced back at the guy again and quickly looked away when he looked at her at the same time.

"I'm not really sure what I'm doing yet. Thanks for the invitation all the same though." I flashed a quick appreciative smile in her direction then became riveted to the teachers every word. Not that it was anything insightful. Now for whatever reason, small town teachers just assume the kids will stay local and don't really need a high level of education. I actually learnt some of this stuff in the 8th grade.

Unfortunately, Jessica was in my second and third periods and never stopped talking to me the entire time. By spanish I knew who was with who, who to avoid, who to befriend and who was nobody. Which if you believe Jessica is everyone who she doesn't eat lunch with. I had never been so glad to hear "Señoritá Dwyer, cómo está?" in my life "Mucho grácias classe de español!!"

"YO! Bella!!" I rolled my eyes as Emmett made his way through the hallway crowds. " Sorry, 'scuse me, whoa sorry buddy, oops that's your foot, sorry, sorry, coming through."

"I don't know how you don't get sat on, Emmett. People must miss you entirely with your demure personality and shy approach to life." I shook my head in mocking disbelief.

"It shocks me too, I mean seriously, I know I'm only an average build and don't really say much but I'm not invisible." Emmett's dimpled grin came out in full swing, as did his arm which went around my neck and literally pulled me to the cafeteria.

"Em...can't...Breathe!!" I gasped and clawed at the tree branch that was his forearm.

"Sorry shorty." He apologised but was now distracted by the food on offer, none of which I could see myself eating.

"I'm not really hungry, I'm just gonna go sit down over there." I pointed at an empty table by the window and walked off as Emmett grabbed a tray and got the tools for his next trick. Eating enough food to satisfy ten people.

I sat on the chair that was most enclosed by the corner and looked around the cafeteria. Usual mix of cliques. The band geeks, the cool band kids, jocks, cheerleaders, readers, outcasts, the loner, the popular kids (Usually a mix of the higher people from the mediocre groups, head cheerleaders, basketball and football captains and such.). I wondered for a moment which one I would enevitably fall into when Emmett befriended the jocks.

"I got you a pear and an apple, pick one or I'll have you committed for anorexia." Emmett placed the fruit on the table as he sat down beside me with his tray piled with greasy meat, pastas and the odd soggy vegetable.

"Thank you, Emmett." I said with a draw out exhale. I examined the two and decided the pear was less poked and prodded and I took a very deliberate bite out of it, making sure to be loud about my eating.

"Good girl." He smiled between fork fulls of what can only be described as mush. "So go on, what's the latest scandal in this place?"

"How the hell would I know?" I frowned and took a more polite bite from the pear.

"Oh Bella, you know you're a big gossip queen. I bet you know everyone's business by now." He smirked.

"Well I was basically force fed info on... that table there." I scanned the tables till I found Jessica's then jerked my head in the direction.

"Which one?" Emmett looked up with sudden interest.

"The one with the people who think they're better than everyone." I took in the others at that table. A blonde girl who seemed to be smelling something foul judging from the sour expression. Mike, the guy from my english class, who was still looking at Jessica. A guy in a basketball jersey with a mixture of blonde and medium brown wavy hair who seemed to want to be anywhere but there. Some guy who was slumped over with his back to me and Jessica who was standing instead of sitting for some reason.

"Oh yeah, I see them. They look like the people from our old school that were in that 'Tribunal' club. Remember when Hayley tried to-"  
"YES! And we don't need to mention it again!!" I lowered my voice to an angry hiss.

Emmett chuckled happily and held up his hands in surrender, "Sorry, won't mention it again. But you've got to admit, they do. Especially the blonde cranky one."

"Yeah, yeah." I rolled my eyes.

"So go on. What'd ya hear?" He took a bite of something moist that was sandwiched in a bun and looked at me expectantly.

"Keep in mind that I couldn't give a crap and I only know this because Jessica wouldn't take the hint to shut up." I looked pointedly at Emmett and he quickly nodded.

"Whatever, I'm bored so let me have it." He looked back over at the table as I took a deep breath.

"Alright, what I do know for sure is the one that's standing is Jessica. She considers herself their leader but she really seems more of a follower of Lauren who I'm guessing is the 'cranky blonde'. The guy blatantly staring at her is Mike-"

"Douche bag!!" Emmett snarled. I looked at him with a frown.

"You've met then?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Nope, he just looks like one. Continue." He nodded towards the table again.

"Pushy much, _Gossip Girl_?" I put my pear stalk on the table and turned back to the table clear across the room.

"I don't know who's who with the other two but apparantly Lauren has a one sided infatuation on '_Cullen_'. I doubt that's his first name but there you have it. I could always ramble on about those meager details for three hours like Jessica did if you like."

"I'll pass." He suddenly lost all interest and became totally engrossed in his food once more. _Gross_ being the operative word. "So where you headed to next?"

"Biology." I sighed.

"Eat the apple and I won't bug you till dinner." He bargained.

"It's bruised and has probably been kicked judging by the dirt on it." I pushed the apple a few inches further away.

"I dropped it, just pour a little water over the skin and skip the bruised bit." He handed me the water bottle from the tray and an empty styro-foam cup.

"I am not eating it. I ate the pear." I said firmly and moved the apple to the other side of the table.

" The apple or the hamburger?" Emmett pointed his fork at his plate, I couldn't quite tell what was the hamburger which was probably a bad sign.

"Another apple, not that one. You dropped it on the-" The bell rang halfway through my sentence and I smiled ever so slightly. "Saved by the bell."

"You've been touched by an _angel_." He waved his fork threateningly in my direction before dropping it in the mush and standing up.

"Not an angel, just a pimply faced recluse who copped a feel in the stacks." I said in a bored tone as I too stood up. Emmett froze and turned to me very slowly.

"You're kidding right?" He said, unblinking.

"Eh, worse things have happened recently." I shrugged as I walked past him and out the doors.

"Bells?" I heard the tray clang down hard on the bench and Emmett came skidding out the cafeteria door, I do mean that literally. His shoes squeaked and everything.

"Hey!" Emmett tried to get through all the people in the halls, not having much luck considering I could fit between them and Emmett either had to wait for a parting or barrel through everyone like a bowling ball to the pins.

"_Isa_bella! Wait! I'm your ride home, don't forget that!" Emmett yelled from an increasing distance behind me. "I'll kill him!" He yelled over everyone's heads then fell silent. I turned back and saw his retreating form moving further down the hall. I rolled my eyes and turned back around to walk into the class room, only to connect with something hard. _I walked into another wall _I thought, frustrated with myself. I opened my eyes to check the wall for damage. How's that, I don't check myself anymore, I check the wall I walked into. Instead of the gyprock I'd expected I saw a guy staring down at me like I had a disease.

"Don't claim you didn't see me unless you're medically blind." He snapped and before I could answer he stepped into the class room. _My_ class room. _Great, I get to spend the next hour in the presence of an arsehole._

"Miss Dwyer." The teacher instantly spotted the unfamiliar face as I walked in the door.

"Yes." I said softly, I'm not really sure why, I could barely hear myself so I doubt he could.

"I'm Mr. Banner, here's your books. It's good to have you here today. Just take a seat right here, if there's anything you don't understand just ask me after class or perhaps Mr. Cullen here can help you out." He ushered me to a seat in the third row as the class became very crowded in a matter of seconds. I took one look at the person on the other seat and drew in a deep breath.

There he was in all his self importance. I now recognised the blue of his button down shirt that he was wearing over a pale grey t-shirt, the person at the table who's face I couldn't see. The same person I, coincidentally, bumped into outside the class room. He looked up at that moment and the glare became ever so slightly tighter around his eyes.

"Edward, this is Isabella. Would you mind helping her out a little today since it's her first day?" Mr. Banner asked but didn't wait for a reply before he turned and walked back to the head of the class.

I very slowly sat down beside him, making sure nothing of me or mine things were touching him. _Should I apologise for walking into him? Would he even be gracious enough to accept? Look at that expression, he _is_ an arsehole._

"I wasn't looking where I was walking a minute ago and I'm sorry for bumping into you. I'm not blind but I was being careless." I did one of those, half looking half ignoring apologies. I guessed he wasn't the type of person to allow people to look at him constantly.

"Why would I give a shit?" He looked at me for a moment, his eyes flicking up and down for a second before he leaned back on his chair and stared at the board.

_Mr. Banner said his name was Edward, I think I'm just gonna call him Arsehole. Yeah, he's so rude he doesn't deserve a real name, he should just go by Arsehole Cullen._ I looked at him out of the corner of my eye, he wasn't even looking like he was doing the work. _Arsehole._ I could feel someone looking at me. You know when the hairs on the back of your neck prickle and you can't help but blush?

I bent over the side of my chair and grabbed a pen out of my bag, purposely letting my hair fall over my shoulder before I sat back up.

_"And Lauren has the biggest crush on Cullen, it's sad almost because he never shows her even the slightest bit of interest. I think she's getting past it now but she still looks pissed half the time cause she tries to talk to him and he won't even look her in the face." Jessica smirked wickedly and dramatically tossed her hair back, making Mike look up from his work._

I remembered Jessica's dramatic mini series. _So this is Cullen? How on earth is anyone attracted to that?_

I did the worse thing I could have done. I casually tucked my hair behind my ear and looked over at him again.

He caught the movement and twisted his head slightly to see what I was doing then put his hands behind his head and yawned. Alright, I'm not gonna lie, he was something to look at. Lazily styled redish brown hair, no not red, copper, no.... oh who cares. Defined but not pointed features, very clean cut jaw and cheek bones and just the slightest hint of some purposely left scruff. Either that or he was just very lazily with his shaving. Kind of tanned but that was probably all anyone here had, it had literally rained every day and all night since we got here. No one was going to be tan here. He looked around the room and zoned right in on my eyes as I continued to assess his appearance. Perhaps hoping for some sizable flaw. The bright emerald green eyes swirled with general distaste and perhaps a little neurotic self amazement.  
"Miss Dwyer?" Mr. Banner looked at me expectantly.

"I'm sorry, I don't know." I shook my head.

"That's alright, just follow along, you'll pick it up." He said encouragingly.

When I looked down I realized I'd actually done this and did know the answer. _Oh well._

"Typical." Arsehole scoffed.

"Excuse me?" I asked incredulously.

"You're probably from some big city and you think you're too good for this town so you're just going to complain about being here and not contribute in the slightest." He rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"Where do you get off telling me what I plan to do here? I haven't complained yet, I don't think I'm too good to be here and it's my first day, how much would you like me to have contributed already?" I glared with all the pent up aggression I had.

"I saw you look down after you got asked the question, you shrugged. You knew the answer but you're just too good to enrich the lives of the rest of us." He said cockily, not bothering to make eye contact.

"Oh yes, as opposed to you. I'm not sure if I've ever met anyone as arrogant as you in my life. I only realized I did know the answer after the moment had passed. Should I interupt the whole class to tell them it now?" I raised my eyebrows. Arsehole just rolled his eyes again and looked far enough away to finish the conversation.

About three things I am absolutely certain.

First, Edward is an arsehole.

Second, I now officially hate biology.

And third, He was the most infuriatingly attractive person I've ever had the displeasure of aquainting myself with.

.,*,.,*,.,*,.

"Bella. You can't ignore me forever. If this is a joke it's gone on long enough. Are you listening to me?" Emmett waved his hand in front of my face as we walked through the parking lot to the car.

"I can hear you, yes. But the subject is moot." I walked around the car to the passengers side as Emmett unlocked the doors.

"Don't moot me or I'll show you where I'm gonna stick my boot! Now, either confess or I'll-"

"Or. You'll. What?" I asked, widening my eyes.

"I'll cut the nipples out of all your tops and the ass cheeks out of all your pants." He smirked and bounced his eyebrows once.

"I'd wear mom's clothes." I shrugged nonchalantly.

"Have you _seen_ mom's clothes?" He asked, I think a little fear about me coming to school with him wearing tye-dyed t-shirts and layered skirts was starting to creep in.

"Yes, but I, unlike you, don't give a fat rats what people think of me." I shook my head and pulled my mouth into an uncaring down turned line.

"You say that now, but I think you do. Otherwise, why wouldn't you just wear your own clothes ever after they were cut up?"

"Dress code, I don't think wearing something that exposes your underwear is allowed." I took a big breath and let it out in a long gust, "A nerd did have a little over the shirt fun but that was after I'd decided to spontaniously kiss him. I figured I'd make the rest of his year."

"And you decided this why?" Emmett started up the car and pulled out of the slushy parking lot much faster than was safe.

"It was four days after dad died, I would have gone all the way with him if he'd tried." I said quietly, the same way I said everything after 'dad'.

"Well I'm glad you didn't." He said, voice still tense. "Oh who's this moron?" He slammed his hand down on the steering wheel as a car pulled out across the road.

"Relax, they'll move in a minute. Look, the truck's blocking them." I pointed at a huge logging truck, I'd seen quite a lot of them this week.

"Yeah well if he hadn't pulled out I could have gone past. I'm gonna let him..." Emmett opened the car door and jumped out, storming over to the rediculous yellow Porsche.

"Hey, do you think you could back up?" He asked and tapped on the window. It wound down and a brief hushed discussion took place. The next second Emmett stood up straight and stormed back over to our car.

"Belly, hold on, we're going over them." He announced. I should probably stop refering to Emmett's freaking monster truck sized ute as a car.

"Are you insane!?!?" I growled through my teeth. "You would kill them and I'm guessing their car would probably keep you working for the next sixty years to pay off."

"I don't give a damn, he wants to get in my way. I can't go around, I can't go under, I can't go through so I'm going over." Emmett checked on my seatbelt and revved the engine.

"Emmett! Do not even think about it!!" I grabbed the door handle as he lurched the car forward an few inches then slammed on the brake.

"Thinking's done, Bells." He glared at the Porsche.

Suddenly the passengers side door opened and a guy got out, swinging a freakin' baseball bat over his shoulder. He walked around the back of the car at a leisurely pace which somehow seemed threatening.

The red...brown...copper, _No, it's bronze!,_ hair. The angry scowl which was worse now he had a reason to be pissed. The cocky, self confidence that made him think he could beat a truck. Edward (_Arsehole_)Cullen.

"Em, run him over!" I dug my fingers into the door.

"Seriously? I was just gonna charge the car a little." Emmett's eyes widened as mine tightened in fury.

"He's an arsehole, run him over. You'll do the world an injustice to let him live." I glared at him and imagined the crunch of his bones as we crushed his legs.

"Edward, get back in the car." An incredibly short, dark haired girl got out of the drivers side and grabbed Arsehole by the shirt.

"Yeah, Eddie, get back in the car. Listen to your girlfriend." Emmett honked the horn and almost deafened the lot of us.

"I'm his sister you sick bastard. I'll move the damn car. Edward, get back in." The midget pulled on Arsehole's shirt again.

He let the bat drop from it's position and walked back around the front of the car and back to the passengers side.

"Good boy, do what your sister tells you." Emmett laughed. Arsehole flipped him off and got back in the Porsche.

"What a jerk off." He laughed and looked at me to agree.

"Well I'd say arsehole but yes, a jerk off would be in the same column." I nodded. The taxi yellow car backed up into the side street it had come from and Emmett sent the truck flying forward, spraying Arseholes car with muddy water. I can't say I wasn't amused by that without lying immensely.

_First day of school and I'd already made two enemies. Welcome to Forks, Bella._

_**Edward POV**_

"Ali, are you sure you don't want me to help? It was my fault he got so angry." I watched as Alice hosed the mud off the front of her sixteenth birthday present. Dad had agreed that as long as I was always with her when she was driving that she could have the Porsche _Turbo_ she'd been begging for. Unfortunately, he asked me this infront of Alice which all but backed me into a corner. It's not that I would have said no but the look she gave me, the pleading, puppy dog eyes look, made it utterly impossible to even think such a thing. Now it was covered in mud.

"I'm alright, I can do it myself. She's my baby and I need to clean her." Alice nodded and waved me into the house. She forgot she was holding the hose and sprayed my pants. Well, atleast I think she forgot.  
"Hey! Was that my payback?" I asked and shook the water off my shoes.

"Maybe..." She smiled cheekily and looked at me out of the corner of her eye.

"I offered to help. Oh well, I'll just get you back later, _little sister._" I teased and hastily made my way to the house. Did I run from my sister? ....._No_.....

"One minute doesn't count." She huffed and turned the hose on me, missing as I stepped onto the porch.

"I'll always be your big brother, so suck it up and wash _Camilla._" I smirked from behind the safety of the window.

"I intend to." Alice turned her nose up at me and spun back around to her car.

"Edward." My fathers questioning voice called behind me.

"Yes." I spun around to find him and my mother standing in the kitchen doorway.

"What happened to Alice's car and why are you wet?" He motioned to my pants which actually seemed wetter somehow. Stupid Forksian humidity.

"It got sprayed by a reckless moron of a driver, I got sprayed by Alice." I looked out the window and saw her bouncing around the car to the tunes of Rihanna. She and I were polar opposites. She was short with black, spikey hair and bounced rather than walked. I am a foot taller with weirdly mixed red and dark brown hair and never bounced anywhere. She liked any type of music so long as it's loud, has lyrics you can sing along with and a certain ammount of electric noises. I like, well, anything but that. The only thing we did agree on was that we wouldn't argue over our differences. Funny how we only agree not to disagree.

"Oh." Was all he said and with a short nod he placed his hand on my mothers back and lead her back into the kitchen. One of the best things about Carlisle is he doesn't talk for the sake of it. Unlike a certain new arrival. I can't believe she had the nerve to call me _arrogant_. Isabella, what kind of name is that? Sounds like a french prostitute. She was the arrogant one. Self righteous, prissy, snob.

Isabella Dwyer = Snob

Snob seemed to fit her better than Isabella. From this day forward she shall be known as _Snob. _No last name.

* * *

It's short but definative.

I _sincerely_ apologise to anyone named Isabella. I happen to love that name, I know it might some lame but I actually named my kitten that. It's just Edward being petty because in this fic he's a bit of a douche at times. Not all the time. Fear not Edward fans, I couldn't do him like that. (Hmmmm, doing Edward *sigh* lol)

We know the main characters that come into play in this one. Jasper's been mentioned as the one at the lunch table in the jersey that would have ran at the first opportunity. Rosalie may or may not make an appearance in this fic, I haven't decided yet.

Review if you hate it to tell me to stop. If I get more than five 'stop' reviews for this chapter I think I'll just toss it to the trash. We don't need _another_ fic no one reads.

Review if you love it and I'll see which column is longer. The stop or the continue. Thanks for getting this far atleast.


	2. Ch2 Know Your Frenemy

**Chapter Two**

_**Know your frenemy**_

"_We hate some persons because we do not know them; and we will not know them because we hate them."_ Charles Caleb Colton.

_**Edward POV**_

"Mr. Banner, I understand there are no other seats but I really can not sit beside Sn..Isabella for the rest of the school year. We have a clash of personality." I tried for the third time to get a different seat but he didn't seem to be listening or understanding what I was saying. Possibly both.

"Which is precisely why you need to. You will encounter many different types of people in your life outside of school and you won't get along with all of them. It's best to learn tolerance before you become stubborn and resistant to change."

"It's too late. I'm already both of those. Can't I swap with someone else? Anyone." I looked around the classroom, visualising my class mates, trying to find an acceptable candidate to switch seats with. Ah, Mike Newton, he'd switch.

"Sir, I'm sure Mike wouldn't mind switching with me." I smiled hopefully. The bell was about to ring and one more class next to Snob might end in blood shed.

"I'm sure he would but I'm not allowing the switch. You've been without a lab partner since last year and I think you need to have one. I'm sorry." He said, completely unsincerely. The bell went a moment later and the other student's filled the hallways after lunch, lazily trudging to the classrooms after consuming way too much grease.

"Thanks. I owe you." I muttered sarcastically. Mr. Banner ignored my statement and started writing on the board.

As the classroom slowly filled I noticed the absence of a certain Snob. Just when I thought my day was turning for the better she tripped into the classroom, muttering something about getting lost. I lifted my left hand up and rested my chin on my knuckles and prepared for another mind numbing class. Carlisle had been teaching me high school biology since I was twelve and was getting bored at school, half the stuff they spat out was wrong.

She glanced up at me on the short walk from the front of the class to my..._our, _desk. Managing to trip on a flat surface in sneakers, she fell ungracefully into her seat with a thud.

_"Today we'll be blood typing. You'll each assess your own blood then your partners, hopefully, you'll both come to the same conclusion. Which I hope will be the right one." _Mr. Banner instructed and passed out slides and pricking pens, similar to what diabetics use. I turned to take my slide and pen from the corner of the desk and saw the color drain from her face. _Huh, the snob has a problem with blood. Who'd have guessed a girl like her wouldn't like a little blood. Shocking! _I thought sarcastically.

"Suck it up, we all have blood." I said coldly and took my stuff from her side of the desk. She turned to say something but quickly spun back when she saw me prick my finger without hesitation and squeeze a drop of blood out. A small part of me might have enjoyed her discomfort. Maybe...

"It belongs _inside_ your- oh, I'm gonna be sick." She closed her eyes and blocked her nose.

"Suck it up. Swallow your pride and stick yourself in the finger. You'd make a shocking junkie." I laughed as I smeared my blood on the slide and pressed it together.

"Which is perhaps why I'm not one." She swallowed hard and bobbed with her hard breathing.

"I think I'm O positive, check so we can finish this." I pushed the microscope over to her side and watched as she pressed her closed eye to the eye piece and quickly blinked then recoiled instantly.

"O positive." She agreed.

"That's funny, my father's a doctor and he said I'm AB negative. I guess you know better than him." I shrugged, she glared at me and swallowed hard again.

"I really don't care." She muttered and turned back the the desk.

"Oh come on, you can't be this sick from the thought of blood and one fleeting glance." I smirked and took my slide out of the microscope.

"It's the smell. They all started pricking at the the same time." She looked around the classroom then back at the desk.

"Well breathe through your mouth, prick your finger and smear a little of your blue blood on the slide." I opened her slide for her and held out the pen.

"I can't. I'll pass out." She tucked her hands into her sides and continued hyperventalating.

"You'll pass out if you don't stop breathing like it's a limited offer." I dropped the pen back on the desk and sat back in my chair, folding my arms and watching her with a smirk.

"You're an arsehole." She muttered and held the pen shakily in her hand.

"You're a snob." I countered and rolled my eyes as she kept putting it on then taking it away from her finger. "Give me the pen before you end up like Newton." I pointed at the back of the glass where Mike Newton had passed out on the desk.

"No." She stubbornly tucked her hands inside her jacket.

"It has to be done and I'm happy to stab you." I chuckled as she glared at me again.

"Arsehole." She mumbled and stuck her hand out then turned away.

"Snob." I sighed and stuck the pen on her fingertip and pressed the trigger on the end. She jumped but didn't turn back to look. I squeezed a drop out and smeared it on the slide before giving her back her hand.

"What's the verdict?" She turned back to watch me look in the microscope.

"What the hell? I've never seen anything like this before. Mr. Banner!" I said in a scared voice, not loud enough for him to actually hear as he attended to Mike.

"Shut up, you can't keep my own blood type a secret from me." She picked up her pen and poised it over the paper.

"I guess you're right. You're a shockingly rare A positive. Care to take a look?" I teased. If laser beams could shoot out of peoples eyes I'd be in tiny chunks. She ground her teeth that hard it sounded like bone snapping.

"No." She said harshly. _Hmmm, she's easily aggravated. _I put the slides off to one side and looked back at Newton. He was stumbling to his feet and being lead out of the class.

"So. Snob. If I may call you that..." I leant back casually on the chair and crossed my ankles.

"Only if I can call you arsehole." She sneered.

"I can take that. Why did you think it was acceptable to walk into me yesterday?" I folded my arms and raised my eyebrows in anticipation of her answer.

"Don't raise your eyebrows, it makes you look smug. I didn't do it on purpose. I was turning around and you were too close. Come to think of it, you were invading my personal space!" She frowned and looked around the room. "Someone here's a hemophiliac, they're still bleeding."

I looked around and saw a group in the opposite corner playing with their prick pens. "No, a couple of them are playing with the pens. Care to go over there and tell them to stop before you puke or pass out or both?"

"I'll pass out if I stand up." She said dryly.

"Best not stand then. Snob, if that is your real nick name, why are you here in Forks? Lose a bet?" I relaxed back in the chair again and waited for her to talk.

"My real nick name is Bella, I'm in Forks because you can't stay on the navy base for more than six months after your serving family member is killed. The six months was up." She dropped her voice and stopped pressing on her fingertip.

"Mother, Father?" I asked delicately.

"I guess you could say both. Dad physically but Mom is the living equivelent." Her voice dropped to a whisper and she closed her eyes for a few seconds.

"Sorry." I said in a quiet tone. The dull roar from the rest of the class seemed to melt away.

"For what? You didn't do it." She took a deep breath and opened her eyes halfway

"Alright, that's true. I'm sorry that happened to you. Even though I didn't do it." I would have gotten frustrated by her brushing off my apology but after two hundred times it must be wearing thin and losing meaning.

"Thanks." She sighed, "Everyone keeps saying they're sorry and I keep thinking _'For what, you didn't do it._', that's the first time someone thought to say they were sorry it happened to me." She smiled slightly and peeked at me out of the corner of her eye.

"Well I've always been good with euphemisms." I nodded.

"What would a euphemism be for what Mike Newton's doing in that trash can?" She pointed out the door where Mike was emptying his stomach into a trash can.

"Mike is having second thoughts about his lunch. Translated. Mike is puking his guts up." I snorted a laugh and Snob just nodded with a smile.

"That's a good one." She agreed.

"I told you euphemisms are my thing." I gloated ever so slightly, "So what's your _thing_?"

"I don't have a _thing._"

"Everyone has a _thing._"

"Girls don't have a _thing._" She smirked. _What do you know, Snob made a funny._

"Some do." I smiled.

"Well I don't." She shook her head.

"You mightn't have a _thing_ but you've got some set of balls." I said, failing my attempt not to laugh. Snob didn't even attempt, she just choked on her spit and stared at me with a shocked look.

"Less than twenty four hours ago I was egging my brother on to run you over and now you're saying 'balls' to me?" She coughed a few times as her breathing slowed again.

"It takes a chick with big balls to call me arrogant to my face. I like chicks with balls." I nodded then closed my eyes and shook my head as I realised what I'd just said.

"That's honest. But I have to tell you. I don't have balls." She laughed.

"It was a slip of my tongue. I don't like chicks with physical balls." I tried shamefully to correct myself. _She's never gonna let you live this one down._

"I think it was a Freudian slip, you secretly want a hermaphrodite." The giggles took on another life as she rocked with restrained laughter.

"You would." I sighed. She had me beat. I'd put my foot in my mouth and now I was choking on my toe jam.

"But look on the bright side. There's tonnes of pre-op trannies out there." She nodded sympathetically.

"I'm very comforted." I said in a flat tone. Snob's laughter was subsiding now and there was no way I was getting another foot in my already stuffed mouth.

"I should make flyers, Edward Cullen likes chicks with balls!" She grinned but didn't laugh again.

"Go ahead. I'd spin it into something about me supporting sex changes." I rolled my eyes. _What the hell? Edward Cullen, friend to transvestites._

"I'd still get a laugh." She shrugged.

"You've just had one at my expense. Don't get greedy." I shook my head.

"Are you afraid I could ruin your ultra cool image?" She cocked her head to the side.

"I'm not afraid of anything." I shook my head.

"What about hot pink?" She raised her eyebrows, she was right, it does make you look smug.

"I fear no color." I shook my head again.

"It takes a brave man to wear pink." She smirked, she smirked!

"I wear pink." I lied. I haven't worn pink since my third grade class play when I got cast as the tulip.

"Oh I don't doubt it. You're so comfortable in your own skin I bet you wear it all the time. Infact, I bet you'll wear it tomorrow." She backed me into another corner.

"Possibly." I shrugged.

"You wear _hot_ pink tomorrow and I'll shred the posters I'm making when I get home." She smirked more devilishly than Jane Smith when they were having the big shoot out in the house. _Fuck, I'm gonna have to do this._

"Alright, and if I don't you can put them up all over the school. Deal?" I raised an eyebrow and she nodded.

"Deal."

We shook hands briefly and the bell went as we broke apart.

"See you tomorrow." She grinned.

"Yeah. In a pink shirt. Snob." I nodded and walked out of the classroom.

"Arsehole." She said after me. I rolled my eyes as I walked down the halls to my spanish class.

And with that one hour I became frenemies with Snob.

_**Bella POV**_

Ask me how it happened and I could never tell you, but somehow I managed to smile, really smile, while talking to Arsehole. I'm not even completely sure how we ended up talking. One second he was living up to his name by teasing me over my blood aversion then the next he was holding my hand and pricking it for me. Something about the way he forced me to just do it made me talk to him. _Stupid euphemisms. _

I looked down at my class schedule and groaned. Gym. I was going to be pummeled into the ground... again. I wasn't made to run, especially on a polished wood floor after a ball.

"Miss Dwyer. Miss Dwyer?" My head snapped up as I heard my name. Well my last name, I hate how teachers do that.

"Yes?" I asked, looking around to figure out where I was.

"You're on the red team, go." The gym teacher, Coach Clapp, pointed to the team forming on the right hand side.

"Please don't knock my teeth out. Please don't knock my teeth out. Please don't knock my teeth out." I chanted under my breath as I slowly made my way to my team mates.

"I take it by the praying you're not very good at basketball?" I looked up to find a pink rather than green Mike Newton smiling at me.

"Um, 'shocking' would be a better classification." I nodded, Mike kept smiling and nodded.

"Practice make's...acceptable." He laughed awkwardly as I nodded slowly.

"Not when you fall walking in a straight line." I said with an embarassed shrug.

"Oh, well I'll try and stop the ball from '_Knocking your teeth out_', okay?" He patted me on the shoulder and looked up when the teacher called Jessica's name and directed her to our team.

"Hey, it's Bella right?" She frowned at me as she asked my name like a difficult question.

"Yeah. Jessica?" I feined forgetting her name too.

"Yeah. So you ready for some exhilarating and fitness improving basketball?" She smiled the barbie smile and looked at the rest of the people on our side of the court. They were all wearing the same expression as me, minus the fear.

"Alright, well. Let's play ball." Jessica clapped her hands together and nodded. Several guys disguised their laughing as coughs.

"Ah, isn't that a baseball term?" I asked uncertainly.

"There's a ball involved here too, I don't see a problem. Mike?" She looked back to him. Just as in English he had now taken to shamelessly staring at her.

"Yeah, play ball." He nodded with a cheesy smile on his face.

Someone threw a ball across the room and knocked Mike in the head, snapping him out of his stupor.

"Ahem, ah, yes play ball." Mike nodded and touched his hand to his head.

"Moron." Someone laughed and we all spread out.

.,*,.,*,.,*,.

"Mom?" I asked as I walked in the front door, Emmett right behind me. He did the bathroom-kitchen-living room dash before I'd even taken my coat off and set my bag down and was flicking on the TV as I made my way upstairs. I stopped on the second floor landing and went to the right to the room at the very end of the hall and slowly pushed the door open.

The shades were still down, even after two weeks. The room was starting to smell of must and damp mildew from all the humidity and unwashed linen. It's not like she was out of bed long enough to wash it. Twenty minutes every second day for a shower and by the time she was out it was barely enough time to remove the cups and bowls from the minimal food Emmett usually force fed into her, let alone wash the sheets and remake the bed.

"Mom?" I put my hand on her shoulder and shook her gently.

"Bella." She whispered, for the first month she didn't even recognise Emmett and I as her children.

"Yeah, how are you feeling today?" I sat on the side of the bed and brushed her tangled hair back.

"Was it all a dream?" She asked, the same as every day. I sighed and took a deep breath as I shook my head slowly.

"No. It's real. You have to get up and take a walk before your muscles waste away." I tilted my head and smiled softly. I took care of mom emotionally the same way Emmett took care of both of us physically. It was really unfair on him.

"I'm so tired." She whispered and closed her eyes again.

"I know. Just come for a little walk, then you can go back to sleep." I coaxed her gently up to a sitting position. Her eyes were cloudy and had deep purple bags beneath them, not from lack of sleep, from stress. Her once bouncing, wavy hair now lay flat and messy on her head and full of split ends from rough, brief combings after the shower before going back into a banana clip when she laid down once more.

"Do I have to?" She asked, like a little child. That was more the way our relationship was, I was the parent and she was the child. She took care of Emmett and I but she was always more free spirited and carefree than either of us, till that day. The day that put her in bed for the last six months.

"Yeah, just for a little while. Come say hi to Emmett and we'll go for a little walk out in the backyard. There's enough sun for the birds to come down today." I held her hand as she nodded and slowly got up from the bed.

"Yeah, lets go see the birds." She agreed in a tired whisper.

"You haven't seen the birds here yet, have you?" I asked softly. She was broken.

"No." She shook her head slowly and watched the ground as we slowly walked down the stairs. We stopped in the foyer and turned to the living room where Emmett was having a very spirited arguement with the referee.

"You're a moron! A moron! That was in by a mile!!" He spat a mouthful of Cheetos out in his attempt to abuse the TV.

"Emmett." I said in a normal voice.

"Yeah, Bells." He tossed another handful in his mouth and chewed agressively while sitting on the edge of his seat, eyes glued to the screen.  
"You want to say hello?" I asked.

"Hello, Bella." He laughed sarcastically. "OH YOU PACK OF IDIOTS! DIDN'T YOU SEE THE SCRAWNY BASTARD SNEAKING PAST!?!?" He screamed at the TV.

"He's gotten louder hasn't he?" Mom asked as Emmett pounded his fist down on the arm of the couch.

"Every single day." I nodded. "Emmett, inside voice."

"This is my inside voice." He argued then cheered as someone drove another guy into the ground. "That's my boy!!" He grinned.

"I'd hate to hear his outside voice." Mom said and looked a little scared.

"He doesn't really have one now. It's this or asleep." I nodded regretably.

"Hmmm." Mom frowned.

"Emmett, press record and say hi to mom." I all but demanded.

"What?" He asked and turned away from the TV. "MOM!" He grinned, "You can walk, it's a miracle!" He laughed and crossed the room in five enormous steps to pull her into an 'Emmett hug', we used to call them 'bear hugs' till he got offended and claimed he never clawed anyone's back open.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Let the woman breathe." I saw mom's eye bug as Emmett wrapped his giant arms around her.

"You want some chips? I'm just watchin' the game, come see. Look, my guys are winning!!" Emmett bounced across the room and pressed play on the TiVo remote. The roaring football crowds screaming filled the room again.

"Uh, Em. Mom wants to see the different birds here. Do you want to take her out the backyard and have a little walk?" I asked suggestively.

"Aww Bells this is just getting-"

"She _really_ wants to see the birds." I jerked my head to the back door and then back at mom.

"Ah, yeah. Come on, mom. These are some of the wierdest critters you'll ever see." He took her arm gently and they walked to the back door.

I waited till they were safely down the back steps and started with a dash of my own. Similar to Emmett but a different route. Mine went something like; bedroom-kitchen-bedroom-laundry-hall closet-bedroom-check on mom-kitchen to get food-bedroom-bathroom (all that running bounced alot)-backyard...

"Did you see anything interesting yet?" I asked mom with a smile. She and Emmett had been doing circles of the backyard for the last twenty minutes. I had to give Emmett his props, he knew nothing what so ever about birds but he kept her happy the whole time.

"Not really, a squirrell ran across the fence but it was kind of weird looking. Like it wasn't groomed properly or something." She grimaced and looked back over at the fence where she'd apparantly seen the ill-brushed squirrell. I didn't have the heart to tell her that the squirrell wasn't a neglected pet.

"Belly, this nature walk has been swell but I've got well oiled machines going head to head for a trophy to observe." Emmett 'handed' mom over to me and raced inside before another word could be said.

"He's very loud, and doesn't like doing anything slowly." Mom whispered into my ear as if Emmett were still in earshot, or even listening at all.

"Yeah, he's a bit of a handful." I nodded.

"Mmmm Hmmm." She nodded and started walking towards the house. "I'm tired, lets go back to bed."

"You wanna do me a favor and eat a little food before you do?" I asked softly, gentle voices and calm persuasion were the best ways to get mom to do something.

"Alright." She nodded and we walked back inside and up to her room.

"What's on the menu for tonight?" Mom asked with a yawn.

"Vell." I said in a very bad french accent, "Ve 'ave, ze alvays appetizing PB&J sandvich and ze assortment of vegetables topped off wiz a delicious vite bread bun wiz ze sesame seeds sprinkled over ze top." I smiled happily after my poorly accented french torture.

"What?" Renee frowned and rubbed her eyes.

"Peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a vegie burger." I rolled my eyes and placed the plate on her legs.

"Oh, thanks. What was that just now?" She asked and started nibbling on her sandwich.

"My attempt to get you to laugh. I guess my french accent isn't funny, it's concerning." I shrugged, still smiling to try and bring up her mood.

"I guess, I didn't really understand any of that so I can't say it was funny." She shrugged and bit off another chunk of bread.

"No... We started school yesterday. It's very different to our last one." I kept smiling, it hadn't worked in six months but I'm not giving up now.

"How? Isn't high school, high school?" She frowned and looked at me quizically.

"Yes and no. It's a high school but there's no where near the ammount of students and they're either really stupid or think they're too important to learn. I guess it's just the first impression, but from what I can tell it's not going to be good." I sighed loudly.

"Oh." She nodded and started on the second half of the sandwich. Usually if she didn't talk as she ate she'd look down at the food and decide not to eat it. That was when I usually called Emmett, he could be that naturally loud she'd eat just to get him to leave.

"Yeah. I met this guy, well actually I walked into him. He's such an arrogant jerk I've nick named him Arsehole."

"Language." Mom warned.

"Sorry. I've nick named him Butt Crevice." I smirked at my own, very poor, euphemism.

"Really. Is he wrinkled and hairy?" She asked seriously. I don't think it was meant as a joke, she really wanted to know if he looked like an arse crack.

"No..." I shook my head. "He's just very annoying and a pain in my backside." I explained.

"So he doesn't actually look like a rectum?" She asked, again, seriously. I smiled but didn't laugh.

"No." I shook my head.

"Good, that would be unfortunate for his family. Imagine the Christmas photo." Renee made a slight expression of emotion then started eating her vegie burger by pulling it apart.

"I think commercial cards would be the better choice." I agreed and giggled just the slightest ammount.

"Yes." She agreed.

"So do you want to watch TV or a movie or read maybe?" I asked, motioning to the TV and books sitting beside it.

"No. I just want to go back to sleep. I'm really tired." She chewed slowly on her carrot and picked through looking for anymore.

"Well you're almost done so when you are you can go to sleep." I smiled encouragingly.

"I don't want the bun." She sighed and pushed it aside.

"That's alright. Just the vegies then you can sleep." I agreed. She smiled so weakly it looked like a twitch and continued eating till the bun was the only thing on the plate.

"Night, Mom." I smiled from the door and shut it as I went out.

Emmett was still sitting in the living room when I got down there with the plate and started to prepare dinner.

"Emmett." I smirked, I had something to cheer him up.

"Yeah, Bells." He came bouncing into the kitchen and sat down on the counter.

"I've got a little project for you." I smiled, he could tell by the evil glint in my eye it would be fun.

"Yeeeah." He got a smile to match mine.

"Do you remember the guy with the baseball bat that I wanted you to run over?" I asked retorically. Emmett remembered, he threatened to flatten the Porsche this morning in the parking lot.

"Yeeeess." His grin got wider.

"Are you any good with poster design?" I asked, a grin taking over my smile.

"I might be, depends." He bounced anxiously.

"I need a really eye catching poster stating that Edward Cullen, remember that name, likes chicks with balls." I bit my lips and Emmett frowned then burst out into uproarious laughter.

"On it Bells, on it as we speak." He pranced back through to the living room to what I can only assume would be design the poster.

"Thank you, Emmett." I called in a sing-song voice and started making dinner for the two of us.

"Not a problem, Bella." He laughed evily.


	3. Ch3 Unforeseen

**Chapter Three**

_**Unforeseen**_

_"The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed." _Carl Jung

_**Edward POV**_

"Edward, _what_ in the name of _God_ are you doing?!?!" Alice invited herself into my room and perched herself on my bed.

"I'm getting dressed, what does it look like?" I held up my jeans then slipped them on under my towel and pulled it free.

"Why are you wearing a pink shirt? Where did you even get one from?" She grimaced at my hot pink dress shirt.

"Um." I didn't have the guts to tell her I'd purposely shopped for a pink shirt right on closing time at the mall last night, "Just felt like it. I've had it in the back of my closet for a while."

"Have you got something to tell me? Like, oh I don't know.... you're gay?" She raised an eyebrow.

"No. Not gay. Can't a straight guy wear a pink shirt?" I asked innocently, I felt my cheeks warming and Alice rolled onto her stomach and stared me down.

"Yes, but you can't." She smirked. "Fess up."

"I don't know what you mean." I shrugged and pulled on a black jacket, Alice was still smirking at me and swinging her feet in the air. "Urgg, I have to or I'll be even more embarassed than wearing a pink shirt."

"How so?" She grinned, she always won. Something about those bright, innocent eyes made it impossible to lie to her.

"I made a deal with this girl. I told her I didn't have a fear and she asked if I feared hot pink...long story short. If I don't wear this shirt there will be posters all over the school stating that I like girls with balls. Don't ask." I sighed loudly and looked at myself in the mirror. _Oh shit._

"I see, well... um... there isn't really anything to say." Alice grinned at my clothing.

"Good. You ready to go?" I asked and grabbed my bag off the chair.

"I might just make my own way to school. I don't want to be seen arriving with you." She teased.

"I'm insulted." I gasped.

"Good. I'm horrified." She pranced down the stairs and jumped the last two, somehow sticking the landing in heels. "Please do up that jacket till I don't have to look at you anymore." She pleaded.

"Only cause you said please." I secretly was looking for any excuse.

"I can't wait to see everyone's faces, knowing you, half the school will come in tomorrow wearing pink." Alice all but dove into the drivers seat of her canary yellow Porsche.

.,*,.,*,.,*,.

I sat in Alice's car. I'm manly enough to admit I was hiding. I was in a yellow girls car wearing a pink shirt hiding from a girl I'd renamed Snob.

"Cullen? What the fuck are you wearing?" My best buddy Jasper knocked on the window and smiled a shit eating grin as he saw the hot pink shirt.

"Clothes." I muttered and spotted Snob getting out of her brothers truck.

"Did you get a red hat mixed in with the whites or something? Fuck, it's called bleach." Jasper pulled the car door open and dragged me out by the shoulder of my jacket.

"Yeah, I just felt like wearing pink. I'm comfortable enough with my sexually to wear this color." I nodded with as much confidence as I could muster. Snob spotted me as she pulled an inconspicuous black bag out. Her brother flipped me off and walked into school as she made her way over to me, grin getting bigger the closer she got.

"Well, I have to say, I'm disappointed. I really hoped you'd flake out." She stopped and sighed as she spotted the hot pink shirt under my jacket.

"I'm already told you, I'm not afraid of any color." I saw Jasper frown out of the corner of my eye. "So is that all of them?" I pointed at the bag.

"Yeah, that's all of them. Care to check out the mechandise?" She opened the zipper on the bag and put her hand in then waited for my reply.

"Sure, lets see if it's really worse than wearing this all day." I held out my hand and she put the flyer in it.

_Oh..._

_My..._

_Fucking..._

_GOD!!._

"Holy fuck man! What the hell?" Jasper's eyes went wide as he looked over my shoulder then to Snob. There on a big red piece of paper under bold writing saying "Edward Cullen likes chicks with balls" was a picture of me and a naked transvetite with my hands reaching for his/her scrotem and a big warped smile on my face.

"Snob, what the hell? Where did you get this?" I turned the flyer around and stuck it in her face then back to look at the train wreck again.

"I had another version but I think this one really captures the love." She smiled.

Jasper grabbed the flyer out of my hand and stared at it incredulously. "I took that photo, not with that smile, but she must have stolen it off my Facebook." He stared at Snob accusingly and she nodded, she didn't even try to deny it, she nodded.

"Yeah, amazing thing the internet huh. I used one of those 'What would your future kid look like' websites to put mix Tom Felton and Mena Suvari's faces into one then stuck the head on the body of a tranny then put it in. I think it's a pretty good super imposing job, don't you?" She pointed at the tranny and nodded with self approval.

"This is just sick. Give me the bag." I held out my hand and she pulled it behind her.

"Not till you take off that jacket, pink shirt, not covered by black jacket." She smirked and I started aggressively yanking my arms out of the jacket.

"You are evil. You know that right. You're manipulative and cold." I grumbled and threw my jacket back in Ali's car then locked it.

"I know, but it's fun. Just think, now you'll have this modern metro-sexual quality. Besides, I thought you wear pink all the time." She raised her eyebrows, daring me to deny it and label myself a liar. She is smart. Evil. But smart.

"I'm not pissed about the shirt, it's the fact you made enough posters to fill that bag. _Transexual's_... Now give me the bag." I held out my hand again and she placed the back pack on my hand and smiled again at the shirt. I opened the bag and frowned. "You made them in blue paper aswell?"

"And purple, but they're down the bottom." She nodded smugly.

"You're incredible." I shook my head and put the back pack on so I could dispose of them later.

"Thanks. There goes the second bell, have fun." She waved over her shoulder and walked off.

"Explain." Jasper crumpled up the flyer as we walked into the school.

"She's evil, that's all there is to explain. I'm not even sure how we ended up here. Either way I lose." I smiled when I realised that yet again she'd backed me into a corner.

"You're in a pink shirt. You've lost, man. Who is that anyway? I've never even seen her before." He asked as we walked up the stiars to the side of the main building.

"New kid. Today's her third day." I shrugged. Not that I know that much about her but the unique details of Snob weren't interesting to me.

"Does she have a name?" He asked sarcastically.

"Snob. No last name." I smirked.

"And her given name would be?"

"Isabella. Trust me, Snob fits her better. Why do you even care?" I adjusted the weight of the bag then just let it slip off my shoulder and held the top loop.

"Because I want to know the name of the one girl capable of making Edward Cullen squirm." He grinned, "So Isabella. She's kinda hot."

"You can't be serious. She's the devil incarnate." I scoffed. I did a quick mental review. She did have the wavy chocolate brown hair I usually prefer. Cute little smile, even if it was usually laughing _at_ me. She was clumsy as all crap but somehow that made her ever so slightly endearing and one blue and one brown eye. Her only outer clue of the freak inside her.

"If she's the devil then I'm committing murder, I want to spend eternity with _that_!" Jasper smiled.

_You and me both._

_**Bella POV**_

I took my seat in biology and waited with an innocent smile on my face. Mr. Banner gave me a strange look as he walked in but didn't say anything about my early arrival as he prepared todays work. The bell rang a minute later and all the students filed in from the cafeteria, all but one. A smart person would have been the first in but now he was going to have to walk in with everyone looking. _Oh, that cocky, arrogant, arsehole. He purposely wants to make an entrance in his shirt just to prove his masculinity. Hopefully atleast someone hasn't seen him yet so I can get a first hand reaction._

In he walked, no strike that, he came strutting in like he was on a freaking runway. Hot pink shirt, dark blue jeans and an oddly confident look about him. Only someone as big an arsehole as him could pull off a pink shirt. The jerk did it flawlessly.

"Mr. Cullen, how nice of you to join us." Mr. Banner said in an accusing tone.

"Sorry, I got held up." He half heartedly apologised. I saw him glance at me as he gave Mr. Banner an apologetic look.

"So, Snob. It looks like I'm as manly as I said." He gloated as he sat down beside me, _show off_.

"I guess you are." I shrugged, I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of praise. "So you ready for some tenth grade biology?" I asked, no hint of interest in my voice. I'd been _way_ to attentive this morning, he's a nobody, a mere blip on my radar of interest. _But he is cute, and funny, and...never mind._

"I am and I am." He replied and got out his pens.

"Great." I sighed, "Did you enjoy blocking our path the other day?" I asked, still keeping the interest out of my voice. Refusing to look at him aswell.

"It was an accident, but yes. Until your brother called my sister a bad driver, then I felt like kicking his arse." Edwards jaw clenched a for a second and his eyes darkened a shade, _hmmm, he does have very...nice, yes that's the word, nice eyes. Light green with flicks of darker emerald. Is it weird that you noticed the specks of darker color? Uh oh, he's talking, what did he say?_

"...but I think she's alright about it now." He shrugged with indifference and looked at me for my opinion. _Atleast I think he want's my opinion, maybe he's looking at me to apologise, shit what did he say?_

"Yeah." I nodded. He frowned slightly then looked back at the front of the class. _Crap, I said the wrong thing. Wait, why do I give a damn? Say something else._ "So how long have you been living in Forks?"

"The past two years." He muttered, not looking at me.

"And you came from?" I realised I'd just blatantly fished for information, no veil.

"Alaska. We were living with my cousins but as we all grew up we began fighting too much and my parents moved us down here. We couldn't go anywhere too hot after being in the snow for so long, so.... Here we are." He shrugged again. _Was he playing my game of feining disinterest? Did he really not care what I had to say? He's an arsehole, what else can be expected?_

"How come you didn't stay in Alaska and just move out of the house?" I continued to look forward most of the time myself, even if he didn't care I couldn't let on that I kinda wanted to know.

"Separate togetherness has always worked well for our family. When we were living in Alaska we were in a twelve bedroom house for the eight of us. We get along better if we have our own corners to retreat to." He seemed to be feeling a bit of nostalgia as he spoke.

"I see. My brother doesn't need a corner to go to so long as he has the living room. Then I can have the rest of the house." I smiled at the mental image of Emmett sitting on the couch, half asleep, still screaming 'touchdown'. "How many cousins do you have?"

"Three, Tanya, Kate and Irina. Tanya's a show off, Kate's alright and Irina's needy. Can you see why I'm not upset about leaving?" He looked at me out of the corner of his eye then back down at the sheet.

"I guess, too many girls. I only have one cousin but I haven't seen her since we were kids." I shrugged.

"Hmmm." He hummed to indicate he was still listening. _You could atleast notice I'm not paying attention to you._ I waited for him to say something, _I won't be the one to break the silence_. But he didn't. We spent the next forty-five minutes in silence, flinching back each time one of our arms or legs would touch the others. The bell rang and without so much as a parting glance he walked out of the classroom. _Arsehole._

_**Edward POV**_

_You are such a jerk. I know it's you but your are _such_ a jerk. _My mind, well my conscience, berated me. I'd shut him up a long time ago but somehow he was breaking free. My mental voice was just my thinking, my conscience was a bit of a suck up, always telling me to be polite. _I need to be medicated. Having mental conversations with yourself is sick._ I shook my head and tried to be sane again when I reached my next class. _This is all because she's hot._ My mental voice told me, the weird entity had a point. _She's not an object, she's a person, a person we hate. _My conscience battled back. My head was starting to hurt as I had this mental battle, surely it's not normal.

I stormed into the class, ignoring the sniggers of laughter at my apparell, trying to physically run away from the voices. _Shit, there's voices in my head. Granted, they're both mine, but why are they arguing. I can only have one opinion._

"Mr. Cullen!" I looked up at the red faced teacher, "Do you care to sit down in my classroom of should we all wait till _you're_ ready?" She always said 'my' classroom because I corrected her countless times and I was always right. Well not always, just 99% of the time.

"Yes, sorry, distracted." I stuttered.

"Well maybe you should refrain from wearing such bright clothing on a daily basis, it's taking away your ability to focus." She raised an eyebrow and looked me up and down.

"My clothing choice has absolutely nothing to do with my intelligence. Now I'm sure the rest of the class is just dying to hear what you have to teach them today." I snapped, she was pushing all my buttons and right now they were already about to overheat.

"Would you like to teach the class today?" She asked retorically.

"Remember last time you made that offer? I think they actually learnt something correct that day, should we try again? Maybe I should just request your job." I glared, she huffed and went to her desk to write me a note to the principal.

"You'll go to the principal and give him this note, and you won't return to _my _classroom till you are willing to learn by _my_ teachings." She folded the piece of paper as I stood up and walked to the front of the class.

"Your resignation letter?" I sneered. "Don't hold your breath for my return." I said loud enough for her and the first two rows to hear.

"No one will be waiting." She growled quietly.

"They will." I motioned to the class as I turned and walked out. I walked down the now deserted hallways and at leisurely pace as I made my way to the principals office. Carlisle wouldn't be happy, he had never gotten a call from the school before. I walked into the office and as Mrs. Cope looked up I pointed at the principals door and took a seat against the wall. I could hear Mr. Greene talking in his office but by the way it was getting closer to the door I presumed the meeting was coming to an end.

Jessica Stanley's mother walked out, no doubt complaining about something Jessica couldn't get like her own personal chef or an assistant to carry her bag. She had a tightly wound expression as she walked out and I think I saw Mr. Greene sigh with relief as she left.

"Mr. Greene." Mrs. Cope coughed softly and pointed at me.

"Oh, Mr. Cullen, what can I do for you?" He asked. Normally the only time I came here was to ask for an extension on an assignment I hadn't finished due to basketball committments and since we were the only ones putting trophies in the hall case he was usually pretty lenient with us.

"I angered a teacher and she sent me to you." I sighed. He looked a little shocked as he waved me into his office. I took a seat and folded my arms as he walked around his desk and sat on the large swivel chair, face still contorted in confusion.

"Which teacher?" He asked slowly.

"Mrs. Goff." I said and rolled my eyes. I know it was immature but I really don't care what she thinks.

"What happened?" He asked, falling back into his normal cool and collected stride.

"Well she gave me this note to give to you but other than that; she insulted my intelligence and clothing choice, I insulted her intelligence. She offered to let me teach the class, reminded her how I took her offer last time. I made a comment about her job, she told me to get out and come back when I was ready to listen to her. I said not to hold her breath. And here we are." I took a big breath after my explanation and watched his face turn from confusion to awe and a slight hint of amusment.

"You said she gave you a note?" Mr. Greene held out his hand and I placed the note in it. He unfolded it and raised an eyebrow. "_Mr. Cullen is a disruptive nuisance. He repeatedly challenges my methods of teaching and my level of education in the subject..._"

"_He needs to either accept that I am the superior or I can not allow him to return and jeopardise the learning of the other students. Mrs. Goff." _I read along with him, do you really think I didn't read the note?

"Do you really challenge her level of education?" Mr. Greene asked and put the paper down on the desk.

"Absolutely. Not to be rude but the woman is an idiot." I nodded and leant back in the chair. I felt no guilt or shame over this, it was coming from the first time she argued with me over the pronounciation of 'Jose'. She said "Ho see" I said "Ho say" and we were enemies ever since.

"Well that _was_ rude. Mr. Cullen..." He sighed and leant forward on his elbows.

"Please just call me Edward, Mr. Cullen is my father." I requested with an exasperated frown.

"Fine. You're calling me Mr. Greene though, I'm still your principal. You won't get along with everyone but you have to learn to co-exist with them or you'll live a very confrontational and stressful life." He looked at me with his head tilted down slightly, half pleading half telling me what to do.

"That's the second time I've been told words to that effect in the last three days. I guess I must really have an acceptance problem." I nodded with a slight frown and an obvious smirk.

"I guess so. Out of curiousity, who said it the first time?" Mr. Greene asked. We normally did get on with a sort of relaxed, almost friendly, air about the conversation.

"Mr. Banner, I had a problem with a student but that seems to have changed into a friendly hate now. I guess I can accept new things. Mrs. Goff isn't new though so I don't think that relationship is salvagable."

"It doesn't have to be salvaged, just a mutual tollerance on both your parts. She's the only spanish teacher we have." He implored me to see it from his point of view, pretty hard considering General George S. Patton himself said '_No good decision was ever made in a swivel chair._' and Mr. Greene was in a swivel chair.

"Sir, are you familiar with the famous quotations of General George S. Patton?" I asked, completely off topic but if I was to listen to him I couldn't have the General in my head telling me I was a fool for listening to someone sitting in a swivel chair.

"No, I can't say I am." He frowned at my sudden topic change.

"Well he said that no good decision was ever made in a swivel chair and you're sitting in one. I'm afraid I can't fullfill your request when you're sitting there." I sighed, he wouldn't understand, hell, he might even think I'm crazy. But if he wants his will to be done he's gonna have to move and repeat himself.

"I don't understand. My type of chair is causing my thought pattern?" He smirked.

"Well correct me if I'm wrong, you enjoy swinging in that when no one's watching." I raised an eyebrow and stared at him unblinkingly.

"Perhaps." He didn't rolled his head slightly, embarassed I'd asked him and that he'd admitted it.

"You can't make a good decision when you're shaking your brain like a cocktail." I said regretably. Mr. Greene frowned deeply then broke out in a smile.

"Alright, Edward. We'll do it your way." He got up and joined me at the front of his desk on one of the stationary chairs. "Hmmm, nope, I still think it's wiser to keep the peace with your elders. Go back to class, _try_ to look sincere about your apology and just sit quietly. It's one hour out of your day." He laughed softly and returned to his side of the desk.

"You see, I can respect that decision now it was said in a regular chair. Thank you for your accomodations." I grinned and stood up, "Do I have to go back to class today? There's about five minutes left, I'll walk in and straight back out."

"I guess not." He said, sitting in the chair. "Oops, that decision was made in a swivel chair, I suppose you aren't going to follow it."

"I'll let that one slide, technically it was made in transit from standing to sitting." I shrugged.

"I had a feeling. Go Spartans." He nodded.

"Yeah yeah, Go Spartans." I rolled my eyes and stepped out.

_**Bella POV**_

"Bell, you're going to have to get over yourself and start doing things for others, honestly." Emmett groaned as we sped along the wet road home.

"What?" I asked, a frown well planted on my face.

"Well think about it, you ask everyone else to do everything but wipe your butt and I'm sure you'd have someone do that too if you found a willing candidate." He looked at me accusingly when we stopped at the T intersection.

"Emmett, are you on crack?" I asked. _Where the hell is this coming from._

"That's beside the point, Belly. The real issue here is, what are you doing for your family and community?" He pulled out after the standard half wait and started tapping his hands on the steering wheel along with the beat of the random song on the radio.

"Emmett. I do stuff for the family and I haven't had the opportunity to help the community yet. Did you go to a motivational seminar while I was in class?" I remembered his Tony Robbins obsession of 2007.

"Again, beside the point. Real contributers make their own opportunies to help. So I ask you, What have you done for me lately?" He raised his eyebrows and glanced at me for a second.

"I let you design that poster just last night, you enjoyed that." I shook my head, Emmett is weird but he's not very random, it's usually built up from a small fascination to a major infatuation.

"You see, you gave me a project to help you. I notice there was no Cullen likes balls posters up today." He looked at me accusingly again.

"I told you before we started making it that he might wear the shirt rather than put up with posters. He wore the shirt." I shrugged.

"So I did all that work for nada result?" He asked, slightly agitated.

"Well I'm sorry, you seemed to be having a good time when you were warping his smile and making him reach for balls." I tried to jog his memory.

"Yes, that I did. But it was for you, not me. Selfish, Bella, very selfish." Emmett shook his head with disappointment.

We pulled into the driveway and both got out, I slipped a bit on the mud but was too confused with Emmett to allow myself to fall. I walked after him, well he walked, I scurried.

"Em, I am not selfish." I hissed. "Hey mom." I called at the roof. "I do alot of stuff for this family and at the first opportunity I will contribute to the community." I followed him on the dash and joined him in the living room.

"Bells, it's in your nature to be a rat. That's ok. Just try to share the rotten eggs every now and then." Emmett patted me on the shoulder and turned his attention to the television.

"What the hell? I'm not a rat. I don't have rotten eggs and you'd be welcome to them if I did!!" I laughed with confusion and Emmett covered my mouth with his over-sized hand.

"Shhh, the game. I didn't mean a real rat, I mean a snide, cunning personality reminiscent of your classic rat. Right now you're being very selfish by not allowing me one of my few pleasures in life and that happens to be football. So... skidaddle." He shoved me off the couch towards the door.

"But!-"

"Yes, Bella. You fell on your butt. Now crawl your ass on out of the living room." He waved at the door and stuffed an Oreo in his mouth.

"Emmett, you are so weird sometimes." I growled and stalked up to check on mom.

She was still in bed exactly where I'd left her this morning. By the looks of it she'd showered while we were at school, the bathroom was flooded.

"Hey mom." I whispered as I walked into the dark bedroom. I turned on the lamp beside her head and sat on the bed.

"How was your day?" I asked softly, she didn't reply. I brushed her hair back and felt her chilled skin, she was all sweaty and it was freezing cold from the partially open window. I hadn't noticed the curtain flapping till the material was sucked hard against the window frame and made a loud banging. It was freezing in the room, then...why was she sweat- what's that smell?

"EMMETT!!" I yelled at the floor as I jumped up and pulled the blankets back. Her pajama sleeves were moist with blood and she was actually grey now I looked properly.

"What is it, Bells?" He asked loudly as he appeared in the doorway. He spotted the blood at the same time I turned to him.

"Fucking hell, not again." He growled and hit the door frame before running back downstairs.

I rolled her onto her back and propped her up against the headboard.

"Mom? Mom?" I shook her shoulders roughly and opened her eyelids. Her pupils were dilated and shrunk down only a milimeter or two with the light. "Mom, wake up. Open your eyes." I demanded and patted her firmly on the cheek. Her head just lolled about on her limp neck. I grabbed her arm and pulled back the sleeve.

"Fuck fuck fuck!!" I dropped her hand and looked at the other one, finding the same verticle cut along the vein not across her wrist. The first time she'd tried about six weeks after we got the message she'd cut across, thinking that would be enough. Some stupid intern at the hospital made a crack about people trying to slit their wrists and doing it in the wrong direction right infront of our suicidal mother. Obviously she'd been listening because there was now four inch long slits along the veins in her wrists.

"The ambulance is coming." Emmett yelled as he came back up the stairs, "I've got to move her down the stairs, they'll want to put her on the stretcher and that'll take too long." He picked mom up and jogged down the stairs with me on his heels then put her on the dining room table.

"I'm sorry, Bells. About before, I was only joking, I just got into it and you were getting so agitated, I let it drag on. I don't think your selfish or a rat and I know you'd share your eggs." He wrapped his arm around my shoulder then ran into the kitchen and came back with the big first aid bag. He pulled out a pressure bandage and tossed it to me and got one for himself to use on her other arm.

"Shit! I hate stupid interns. Jesus, look at all the blood-" He looked up at me as I pulled her right sleeve back. "You alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Adrenaline does amazing things to your sense of priority." I ignored the smell and started wrapping the bandage around the arm as more blood leaked out.

"She fucking promised." He muttered and put the clip on his side. "She promised him at the funeral she'd take care of us. Is this taking care of us, mom?" Emmett looked up at her face and then got me a clip for my side.

"Hold them up, discourage the blood from going to her arms." He raised mom's arm up straight and I did too.

"What are we gonna do?" I asked him, the last time they said if anything even remotely like this happened again they wouldn't let her out of the hospital.

"It'll be alright, Bella. They can't take you away now, I'm eighteen, I'll take parental responsibility. I won't let them take you away." He stared at me seriously. I nodded and turned my head to the door as I heard the ambulance sirens then back to Emmett and stared at him, he stared back. We exchanged a sad look as the EMT's knocked on the door then opened it.

"Hey kids." The first man in walked into the dining room.

I looked back at Emmett then down at mom. _We are just kids. This isn't fair._

* * *

I know I'm touching some sensitive subjects here but sometimes limits need to by pushed.

Hope no one is offended :-/


	4. Ch4 Falling Inside the Black

**Chapter Four**

_**Falling Inside The Black**_

_You were my source of strength  
__I've traded everything  
__That I love for this one thing  
__Stranded in the offering  
__Don't leave me here like this  
__Can't hear me scream from the abyss_

_Falling Inside the Black _by_ Skillet_

_**Edward POV**_

"Hey." I strolled casually into my fathers office, I figured it best to tell him about my indescretion before he got told by a formal letter.

"Hello, Edward." Carlisle looked up from his work and smiled at me.

"Good day?" I asked, again, casual. Small talk was good.

"I suppose, no one's died in my care so it's a good day so far." He nodded. "But I have a feeling it's about to turn bad, why are you fidgeting?"

"I'm not fidgeting." I argued back.

"Yes, yes you are. Did you 'try' marijuana for the ninth time? Because after the second time it's not trying anymore, you know what it does." he put down his pen and took off his reading glasses. I think he just wears them to look smarter.

"No, not _marijuana_, by the way, we call it weed or pot these days." I smirked.

"I don't care if you call it 'Grandma's old panties' I'm still going to refer to it by it's actual name, only stoners need slang for drugs." Carlisle stated then turned suspicious again.

"Where on earth did you get 'grandma's old panties' from?" I asked, unable to resist smiling beneath my confused frown.

"It just occured to me." he said proudly. "What did you do?"

"I may... or may not! have... called my Spanish teacher a moron. If I did, what would you say?" I asked carefully.

"Well I'd say, you're very childish and I'm disappointed you couldn't come to a mature solution. That is if you did say that. Which I'm hoping you didn't but I know you did." he sighed and stood up, replacing his book on the shelf as he walked around the desk.

"Edward—"

"She is a moron. Just because her father lived in Spain for a summer doesn't make her a good spanish teacher." I tried to stop the speech before it came.

"We can't all be multilingual, Edward. She might not be perfect or even fluent but she's been deemed as satisfactory for the purpose and you should treat her with the respect she has earnt." Carlisle put his hand on my shoulder. I shrugged it off.

"She said fiestas as f-hi-ease-taz." I raised an eyebrow and Carlisle winced.

"Oh, well that's just bad. Are you sure you're not exaggerating?" he looked at me and I shook my head.

"Sad isn't it?" I pulled a regretful face.

"Painful," He nodded. "Well poor pronounciation aside-"

"Oh come on! If you're not going to say it right don't make other people wrong." I curled my fingers into tense claws in the air to show my frustration. "Think about it. Students from Forks High School are going to go over to Spain for Christmas or something and say _Felices Fhi-ease-taz_ and crickets are going to chirp."

"It's worse the second time around isn't it?" Carlisle winced again.

"Well imagine an entire class of naive youths all saying it at once. I was in physical pain." I said dramatically.

"I can imagine."

"No you can't," I shook my head. "Remember when I told you I taught a class? Well it was her class, she got angry with all my corrections. She offered again today and I told her the class actually learnt something last time and she got pissed. She said my choice of shirt was making me an idiot." I undid my jacket and showed Carlisle the hot pink shirt.

"Well... um... it's pink." He smiled.

"Well spotted." I rolled my eyes, voice dripping with sarcasm.

"No need for sarcasm, I was simply taken aback by the bright color. It's not in your usual palate. But anyway, couldn't you have just shaken it off?" He looked at me questioningly.

"The first time, yes, certainly, and I did. The second time, handled it with finesse. Third time, I developed a dislike for the woman. Fourth and subsequent times, no I can't. She bugs me," I stated. "And if you are the third person to tell me to learn to accept that I won't like everyone then I might lose my mind." _Not that this whole mental voices thing hasn't made me consider that having already happened._

"I won't. But you do have to just let her do her job. You don't even need to pay attention, you know spanish so just put the right answers on your exam and you'll do fine."

"Mmm hmmm," I nodded, unconvinced. Suddenly dad's pager went off and he grabbed his coat before stepping out the door with me slightly behind him.

"What's the medical emergency?" I quizzed as we walked briskly down the halls.

"Ambulance," he replied giving no actual details. "You can't come through here." he held out his hand to stop me in the waiting room and walked through a big set of double doors. I stood awkwardly for a minute, trying to decided whether to wait or not.

"_You can't make me, stop shoving. I've already seen it, there's no use trying to hide everything from me now_!" A shrill, angry voice drew closer to the doors and suddenly they we burst open by a doctor with an annoyed expression.

"It's protocol. You can't be in here. Please take a seat and I'll let you know more when we know something." He motioned to the vinyl covered chairs as two people came through the doors a moment later. They both froze as they saw me. I froze as I saw them. The doctor took the silent moment to get back in and shut the doors.

"Asshole." she said with recognition. Strange to be called an Asshole in a general context. Her brother flipped me off and sat down hard on one of the chairs.

"Snob." I replied and took a few unconscious steps forward.

"Why are you here?" she asked and crossed her arms defensively.

"My father is really a doctor like I told you in class," I explained. "So-"

"Are either of you the same blood type as your mother?" A nurse poked her head through the door and looked at Snob and her brother.

"I'm, ah... what was I..." She looked up at me with a panicked frown.

"She's A positive." I said at the same moment her brothers voice boomed over mine.

"I'm A positive too, she's not eighteen."

"Yep, come with me please." She waved him forward. He looked at Snob and mumbled a quick, "_Wait here_." Then jogged through the doors.

"What happened? Accident?" I asked as she turned back to me.

"I suppose you'll find out anyway, my mom tried to... fuck, I can't even say it." She unfolded her arms and ran her fingers through her hair as she dropped into a crouch with her head forward.

"Whoa, you alright?" I asked and closed the distance completely as I reached out for her incase she passed out.

"She did it again," she mumbled and suddenly lost the front and burst into tears. "She did it again after she promised, why would she promise then not... no, this is all just a sick joke." she pulled back and moved away to the corner under the tiny television set showing Playhouse Disney.

"Yes, yes it is a joke. It's a joke, if it's not a joke then it has to be real, it's a joke, just a sick, twisted joke. Tell me it's a joke so we can all laugh about how well you got me," She looked up at me and pointed. "You're in on it aren't you? As payback for the shirt and the posters, you're good. It almost looked real, was it stickers? An airbrush tattoo? You got me." She smiled painfully.

I shook my head and opened my mouth but for once I didn't have a word to say. The last time Alice freaked out was when she accidentally smashed our great grandmothers vase and went into a panic attack trying to super glue it all back together without cracks.

"It's a joke! Just a fucking fucked up joke. It's not a joke is it?" She frowned and shook her head furiously, shaking her messy brown hair as she dropped to a crouch again. "It's not a joke, she really did it again. I can't breathe, fuck, someone open a window or something there's no air in here!" She abruptly stood up, walked to the window and looked for a lock or something to open it.

I stood and watched as she clawed at the frame and tried to push the window out. I went to walk forward when she let out a loud scream of frustration and slapped the glass.

"They don't open, what kind of place is this? They don't open!" She turned around and raced across the room to the opposite window and tried to open it too. "They're trying to suffocate everyone or something." She spun around again in a panic and ran her fingers into her hair again and pulled on it. Surely hurting herself.

"Hey, relax. They don't open because it's a hospital. Do you want to come outside and get some fresh air or something?" I moved closer but she looked at me as if I were about to stab her so I stopped and stayed on the other side of the chairs. She continued to mumbled incoherant nonsense to herself then dropped to the floor and looked down at her hands where bits of blood were on her fingertips from where she'd literally scratched her hair out.

"Oh god, it's true, she really did do it again. All the blood, the blood on the shirt, there's blood on everything. Oh my god she really did do it again, she tried to kill herself, she tried to... Emmett!" She put her hands over her face and curled her knees up to her chest. I walked around slowly so as not to startle her and stopped a few feet away.

"Breathe slowly, you're going to pass out." I said quietly and slowly bent down onto my knees and shuffled foward. She looked up and kicked backwards across the floor till her back was pressed against the window then she pulled her hood up over her head and pushed her face into her knees and continued to cry.

"Bella." I said quietly.

"Don't touch me." she mumbled through the violent sobs rattling her.

"I'm not going to touch you."

"I want my brother!"

"He'll be back in a minute. It doesn't take long," I tried to keep my voice even. "Come sit on the chair, the floor's dirty." I reached my hand out.

"NO! Don't touch me!!" she screamed, backing further away till she was in a corner.

"I'm not going to touch you," I repeated, putting my hands behind my back. "Look, I won't touch you. Do you want a drink? You want to go outside?" I pointed at the doors down the hallway.

"Where's Emmett?" she cried again.

"He's just through there, he'll be back in a minute." I pointed at the double doors.

She looked over to them then buried her face once more. I sat back on my heels and waited. Waited for something to happen, some great _moment_, an epiphany perhaps.

"_Listen baby..._" she mumbled into her knees. "_Ain't no mountain hi-high... Ain't no valley low... Ain't no-no-no..._" She sniffled and looked up again towards the door. She saw something, something I didn't.

"What is it?" I asked in a low, hushed voice.

"She's... she's gone," she whispered in disbelief. Or was it shock? She touched her chest and clenched her shirt tightly in her fingers. "Just like dad, I can feel it." She seemed more in awe now, the tears running down from her puffy red eyes but she wasn't shaking anymore. Her mouth fell open a little then closed as she continued to stare at the door with unabashed amazement.

"No, I'm sure they're helping her. Your brother's back there helping her." I nodded encouragingly.

"My mother's dead." she gasped then her eyes rolled back onto her head and she passed out before I could move an inch.

_**Bella POV**_

Beep..... Beep..... Beep..... Beep

_Urgg, I feel like dried out tomato._ I slowly forced my eyelids open to see the white ceiling of my hospital room. I blinked a few times and swallowed, tasting the foul flavor of bile. I gagged and coughed.

"Bella?" Emmett was suddenly hovering over my face. "Oh, thank god." He smiled with relief.

"What hap—" My voice cut out and my throat burned from dryness.

"Oh, Belly," he sighed, leaning down to kiss my forehead before he hugged me gently. "I'm so sorry." he whispered.

"Isabella. I thought you might be awake," A doctor entered the room with a small smile on his face. "How do you feel?"

I took a deep breath and swallowed the little saliva I had in my mouth to lubricate my throat. "Dehydrated."

"You're not dehydrated you've got an IV, your throats just dry, I'll get someone to bring you some juice, you need some sugar," He nodded simply then looked up with a more careful expression. "Okay, your brother says you don't take drugs but—"

"She _doesn't_!" Emmett said angrily beside me.

"I have to ask her, if she did she'd be secretive about it," The doctor looked back to me. "Isabella?"

"No, never have." I sighed.

"Alright, any history of epilepsy in your family?" he asked.

"No..." Emmett sighed.

"Diabetes?"

"No..."

"H—"

"Nothing. Panic attack and passing out, yes." He shot a dark look at the doctor.

"You're not helping your sister by getting angry with me for doing my job." The doctor sighed.

"Well I guess I just thought that when I answered these questions before that it would be the end of it." he muttered.

The doctor sighed and put the chart back on the end of the bed. "I'll send you in a drink, Isabella." He smiled fleetingly before turning and leaving.

"Emmett." I groaned.

"They asked me those exact questions before." he said impatiently.

I pursed my dry lips and waited for the nurse to come in with a drink which she did just a minute later.

I gulped down the apple juice and thanked her before she left again. "She's gone, right?" I asked, detaching myself from the question so I could handle the response.

"Bells..." Emmett stood and came back over to my beside.

"Yes or no." I murmured.

He sighed and nodded, closing his eyes as his facial muscles locked up.

"My mom." I whispered, the tears finding my eyes despite my attempts to brush them off.

"I know." Emmett swallowed hard and sat down beside me.

"My dad." I sniffed, the tears falling down my face.

"Our parents," he whispered, leaning forward and pulling me into a big hug. "I'm sorry, Bella." he breathed into my hair.

The fact that my big brother was crying made it completely real, my goof-ball of an older brother was crying and I'd seen that three times in my life. When Grandpa died, when Dad died and now.

If Emmett cried there was something to cry about so I did. I cried for the next hour till I couldn't physically make anymore tears and still I sobbed.

"They're going to take us away," I hiccupped. "Give us to some paedophile sadist on a country ranch where no one would hear us screaming."

"Like fucking hell they are," he said, raising his voice slightly. "I told you before, no one's taking you anywhere."

"You can't stop them. We've got _no_ income, _no_ family members in this country, Aunt Caroline lives in _England_ in case you forgot. We're fucked." I let out a long breath and dropped my head.

"Bella, there's something I'm not meant to know but I do. Dad had been putting money into trust accounts for us since we were born, I found the paperwork when I was cleaning out his draws after the funeral. There's more than fifty thousand dollars in each account to be accessed on either our twenty-first birthday's or if we have children before then. I think I might be able to get access to mine considering the circumstances and either way I'm not letting them take you. I'll be your guardian or whatever I have to be to keep you with me." He sat forward on the chair against the wall to my right, putting his forearms on his legs.

"You're eighteen by the skin of your teeth, what judge is going to give you custody of a minor over a fully qualified foster parent? Sicko or not." I asked skeptically.

"One that knows what's good for him," he muttered. "Bella, you've got no idea what lengths I'd go to in order to protect you. You're the only family I've got left."

"I also know that you'd use physical violence if you had to which would leave me where? The same position," I rubbed my forehead and looked back to him again. "Just pray they keep us together."

"I don't need to. I've never wanted anything before and if there is a God he's going to give me this. If there isn't then I hope the person that gets in my way is religeous because he's going to need devine mercy. You're my little sister." He looked up again with an almost scarily dark look, like he was already preparing himself for murder or something.

"Let's _not_ jump to conclusions. 'kay?" I nodded slowly, prompting him to do the same. "It could be fine, they might agree to what we want."

"They will." He nodded with confidence.

"Alright, to be honest, you're scaring me."

"I hope so."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means, play time's over," He looked up and raised his eyebrows. "How do you feel?"

"Physically, I feel alright, mentally, I'm wondering if I should have you hospitalized before you commit homocide."

He smiled and rolled his eyes. "Well let's see about getting you home shall we?" He stood up and walked over to the door.

"Sure, I can't wait to get back there." I said sarcastically. Emmett's face pulled into a tight frown of regret as he opened the door. "Oh, great. Bella, the cops are here." He looked back at me and rolled his eyes then stepped out into the corridor.

"Miss Dwyer, I'm Chief Swan, I'm here to ask you a few questions about what happened today." he said softly. He was a middle aged man with brown hair and a moustache, the wrinkly laugh lines around his eyes were deep and the frown lines on his forehead were even deeper.

"Obviously." I sighed. _Oh look, my sarcasm's back_.

"First of all, I'm sorry for your loss." he said softly.

I almost laughed, everyone had been saying that after Dad died and now it was already starting. "Thanks." I muttered, sucking in a cleansing breath.

"Alright, if you could go through your day from this morning that would be great, please try not to leave out any details." He pulled out a notepad and pen.

"I woke up, ate breakfast—two pieces of toast with butter—I packed my bag, said good morning to my mom and told her I was going to school," I paused and swallowed hard as I realized that was the last time we'd spoken. I pushed back the tears and took a deep breath before continuing. "My brother drove me to school, I tormented one of my classmates," I let out a tragic laugh then stopped when he looked at me disapprovingly. "Legally of couse. Um, my brother drove me home again in the afternoon, we walked in, he went to the living room and turned on the TV and I went upstairs to see my mom."

I stopped as flashes assaulted my mind, blood and pale skin, screaming and a very fast ambulance ride.

"And that's when you found her?" he asked quietly.

"Yes." I nodded, swallowing again as the tears escaped my eyes.

"I'll need you to be as descriptive of this as you can manage, take your time." He looked up from the notepad and smiled in what I think was meant to be reassurance but it just made me feel worse. He was smiling and my mother was dead. Asshole. _Asshole... what happened to Edward?_

"Um, I walked into the room... it was dark, the window was open making the blinds bang against the frame. She was in bed with the blankets pulled up, sweating I think, she was greyish-blue," I gasped in a breath and bit my bottom lip as I tried to remember the details despite my mind begging me to just forget. "I noticed the smell, I have a phobia of blood and I can smell it," I whispered. "I, ah, I pulled back the blan-, no I called Emmett first or did I... I can't remember, I called my brother and pulled back the blankets I'm not sure which order. And there was blood everywhere." I squeezed my eyes shut but they rocketed back open instantly as I saw practically every detail again.

"Did you touch anything?"

"I sat her up and tried to get her to wake up," I nodded slowly. "And we took her down from the bedroom to the first floor. Then bandaged her wrists, then the ambulance got there." I murmured, staring forward unblinkly as shock finally found me.

"Alright, was she depressed or acting strangely in the days or weeks beforehand?"

I nodded slowly. "Six months ago my dad was in an accident in Iraq. She never got better." I answered robotically.

"Alright, that's all. Thank you, Isabella. If you remember anything that could be of importance just give me a call at the station." he walked forward and gave me a simple, white business card with the Forks Police Department logo on it and the public number to the station.

"Ok." I answered, nodding.

"Well, I hope you feel better, again, I'm sorry for your loss."

"Yeah, me too." I whispered.

He left silently, closing the door behind him.

_I'm all alone._ I looked around the big white room, monitors and various other machines against the walls, crappy pleather chair, the _beep... beep... beep_ informing me that I was still alive in this nightmare.

"Good news, Belly. You get to stay here for another glorious four hours after you regain consciousness. Are you excited?" Emmett asked, he slipped back into the room and dropped down on the hideous green chair.

"Emmett, this is the biggest thrill of my life. I just peed a little." I replied sarcastically.

_**Edward POV**_

The ride home was silent. Just the quiet hum of the engine as my father drove.

"It wasn't your fault." I broke the silence, my voice sounding ten times louder than usual even in my hushed tone.

"I know. There was nothing that could have helped her short of a miracle," He nodded once. "The daughter..."

"I go to school with both of them." I explained.

"She just passed out?" he asked, not looking away from the dead straight road to our house.

"She had a panic attack, started mumbling song lyrics then passed out. So yes, I suppose she did." I nodded slowly.

He nodded with understanding and didn't say another word.

My phone vibrated in my pocket, I opened the text to find Alice's unabbreviated message.

_Edward, where are you?  
__Mom's panicking thinking you  
__were mugged on the bus. I  
__keep telling her I would  
__know if you were hurt, but  
__she doesn't believe me.  
__Reply quickly.  
__-A_

"Your sister?" Carlisle asked.

"Mmmhmm." I nodded.

_Ali, u rly need 2 learn how  
__2 msg w/o spelling all da  
__words.  
__I'm fine, coming home  
__now. Tell mom 2 chill.  
__-E_

I bounced my phone in my hand a few times till it vibrated, still startling me into tossing it out of my hand.

_I'm not a neanderthal. For  
__someone named Edward  
__you're very juvenile. Perhaps  
__giving you a worldly name  
__didn't help you in the 'proper'  
__behaviour department.  
__She wants to know if you  
__have any sort of protection.  
__(PS: Condoms don't count.)  
__-A_

I snorted a laugh and replied.

_I dont no who she wants  
__me 2 protect myself from.  
__I'm with dad.  
__Shud I shank him?  
__Or beta yet, use a rubber?  
__-E_

I pressed send waited for the disgusted reply that was sure to come from my sister.

_Edward Anthony Cullen!  
__YOU are too twisted for color  
__tv. When you get home I am  
__going to show dad these  
__messages so he can see  
__what a sick shit you really  
__are.  
__- Grossed out beyond belief._

I laughed loudly and stuck my phone back in my pocket.

"What did you say to her?" he asked, already disapproving.

"Mom's worrying, again, she asked if I had something to protect myself with and Alice said condoms don't count. I asked if I should shank you or use a rubber, she didn't like that." I laughed again. _Oh well, I guess I dobbed myself in already._

"Since I'm your father I'd prefer you shank me."

"Duly noted."

I turned to the window and looked out at the rain drops running down the window. The little crystal droplets that reminded me of the tears on Bella's face this afternoon.

What would they do now? Without either parent. No one to care for them, they'd most likely be taken into state care.

Even unconscious I could swear she was still crying, that her limp body was still pushing into her brother when he came out just ten seconds after she passed out—seeking comfort in him.

Never had someone looked so uneased when out cold.

It was then I realized something truly shocking.

For the first time in two years, I felt sympathy for someone else's misfortune and pain.

"How's basketball going?" Carlisle asked.

"What?" I frowned deeply. That simple question confused me more than MIT level algebra.

"Basketball." he repeated, turning to look at me with concern.

"Oh, right. It's fine. Sorry, I was a million miles away."

* * *

You know I'm getting stuck when I write one persons pov in text messages lol I really didn't know what to say. I had nothing left for Bella and Edward wasn't doing anything interesting so...

Anywho, this is the starting point for the whole reason behind the story. I planned this chapters events as soon as I started the story so now I should be writing them faster since we're getting in motion.


	5. Ch5 Thing's Can't Possibly Get Any Worse

This chapter is dedicated to _Diana Law_, without whom it would still be in progress. She took what I gave her and spun it into something worth reading because she is just that great!

**Chapter Five**

_**Thing's Can't Possibly Get Any Worse**_

"_There is no chance, no destiny, no fate, that can circumvent or hinder or control the firm resolve of a determined soul."_ Ella Wilcox

_**Bella POV**_

This isn't really happening. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and opened them again.

It was still real. Just to be safe, I tried the notion once more coming out with the same results. My mom was dead, she killed herself, forced me to find her, and expected me to understand what she did. How very Renee of her.

I sniffled again as I flipped my blankets off me and sat up slowly. My knees cracked in protest when I pried myself from the bed to stand. I'd been in the same position all night, the first one in the house without my mom. I stretched slowly and walked out into the hall to stare down it at my mother's closed bedroom door.

The police were finished with us and our house. They'd taken their photos, their measurements, what would be the evidence if this were a murder, as if it could have been murder at all.

They had ransacked the bathroom and kitchen for everything sharp enough to cut human skin, all the while reassuring me that this was just standard procedure and once no blood was found on the items that they'd be returned. It was blatantly obvious what the device she had used was. A box cutter blade we'd used when moving. Why they needed to take a million other things was beyond me, but why argue? It's not like it would do me any good.

After a little while longer staring at her door, I forced my body to respond to my commands and move away from it to go look for Emmett. The walk down the stairs was almost as long as it had been last night when I had to force myself to climb them. I'd denied Emmett's offer to carry me and although it had taken me almost four minutes, I'd walked up the twenty stairs on my own. I'd even put myself to bed, without brushing my teeth or changing my clothes mind you, but to bed nonetheless.

I automatically walked to the living room but Emmett wasn't there. The television was off and there weren't any chip packets on the coffee table, not one can or bottle of soft drink on the floor, no little trail of drool down the arm of the couch from where he'd fallen asleep there last night. I panicked slightly at his absence but held it together.

I pulled my long sleeves down over my hands and tucked the covered fists under my arms as I continued around the corner to the dining room where he was in fact sitting with the laptop buzzing in front of him. His head was turned to the side as his big body hunched over the table. You could hear him snore slightly if you listened hard enough in the quiet house. Emmett was asleep on the table.

I took the computer away from him, his finger was still pointed on the mouse pad meaning he hadn't actually gone to sleep in that position, but he'd passed out like that. The image on the screen was covered in little white dove shapes around pictures of caskets. Oh God…He was looking at a casket catalogue…

I closed the laptop quickly before my mind got away with me, and nudged his cheek to wake him.

"Emmett." I said when he didn't move. I proceeded to nudge him again, this time with a little more force.

"Choco-occo-latté mmmm chilly fries." he mumbled, licking his lips, a smile forming.

I laughed a tragic sound and shook my head at him slowly. "Would you like to super-size that?"

"Mmmhmm, I can handle it." he agreed then sucked in a deep breath and woke with a start.

"Bella!" he said a little too loud as he wiped the leftover drool from his mouth.

"Sorry, you fell asleep at the table last night. It's not good for your neck you know."

"Oh, right, I was… never mind. What time is it?" He looked around, a little disorientated, till he spotted the clock. "Why aren't we at school?" he blurted out as he jumped to his feet and seemed to be looking around for something, probably his shoes.

A burst of laughter broke through my lips before I could restrain myself. "You're kidding, right?"

He thought about it for a second then his face fell and he brought his hands up to rub his eyes and fell back into his chair. "Right, sorry."

"So did you pick one?" I asked quietly. He looked at me and followed my glance to the closed laptop then pursed his lips and shrugged. He was obviously hoping to pick one and be done with it before I woke up.

"I don't know."

"Do you want some help?"

"You don't have—"

"Yes I do." I pulled out the empty chair next to him and grabbed the computer before he could protest. I sucked in a deep breath and slowly opened the laptop to reveal the page he was on before I closed it.

"Dad always said he wanted a pine box, mom never said anything," he murmured, clearly frustrated.

I scrolled down the page, all the practically identical boxes rolled past my eyes one after the other in a morbid fashion.

"When I go, just toss me out into the woods, let the bears get me." Emmett laughed, staring at the identical boxes with me, his hand fisted in his hair.

"Alrighty. That makes things easy." I glanced over at him and rolled my eyes. I never did understand his fascination with bears.

"Wait!" He knocked my finger off the mouse pad to replace it with his own as he scrolled back up the page. "She always was eclectic."

"Seriously!" I raised my eyebrows, questioning his sanity as I stared at the coffin he enlarged on the screen. I was in shock to say the least. "It's freaking purple Emmett!" I shrieked.

"Step outside the circle, this isn't you Bells. You wouldn't go for this but would she? It's not your final resting place now is it?"

"Hmmmm, it's still PURPLE! My resting box or not." I tapped the screen to further illuminate my point. After a few seconds, I took in another deep breath and let it out slowly. I calmed myself long enough to think clearly. "It's purple, but it is very 'mom' isn't it?"

"Very." he agreed.

"A purple coffin?" I tilted my head to the side just to make sure I was still sane.

"A purple coffin." Emmett nodded, smiling now.

"Till the earth explodes or freezes over, which ever happens, she shall be at rest in a purple casket." I made sure he understood the finality of this decision, just incase he was still in his dream world and not fully awake.

"Prior to Dad dying, was there ever more than two days in a row when she wasn't wearing purple something? Go look in her closet, look in the linen closet; purple sheet sets of all things. Bells, it's _mom_."

"Purple everything!" I threw my hands up in the air. I knew he was right. Renee really would have loved this, even if it were a casket.

Emmett snorted as his poorly restrained laugh broke free, mine following.

"Stop laughing you rude bitch." he chuckled, trying without use to calm himself down while turning red in the face. That just made me laugh harder and double over to hold my sides.

We kept laughing till I reached up to the mouse pad and clicked on the picture. When the price came up, I choked on my saliva, all humor gone from the moment.

"FUCK!" I coughed. "Is it solid gold under the purple? Or are there diamonds embedded in the pillow?" Emmett followed my gaze to the price and began to spout off its qualities which forced the price up.

"Water tight wood, the lining, it's pretty standard stuff. Sometimes they have to move these things fifty years after they're buried. We don't want our mother falling out because the coffin was poorly constructed now do we?" He looked at me sadly, only a small ounce of humor in his eyes.

"Termite resistant! What termite is six feet under the ground? Besides, what termite would want to be that close to a dead body?"

"Termites live under ground. They need ninety-seven percent humidity to survive." Emmett grinned slightly before returning his gaze to the computer screen.

"You're pulling that out of your ass." I accused.

"It's written right there." He tapped the little note at the bottom of the screen.

I looked at the little rectangle and bit my lip, feeling like a complete idiot. "Oh."

"Any problems now?" he asked, a slightly smug grin on his face.

"Ahhh, nope, I'll just keep my mouth shut now." I turned the computer to Emmett and folded my arms across my chest and huffed.

"Wise choice," He nodded his approval. "Did you sleep through the night?"

I sighed and shrugged simultaneously. "I kept seeing things, so no. I didn't sleep very well."

"Same as with Dad?" he guessed.

"Yeah."

"It'll get better."

"Not before it rips away my sanity."

"We'll be okay." he vowed, wrapping one huge arm around my shoulders.

"How long?" I put my elbow on the table and rested my cheek on my hand while he removed his arm and clicked and typed in short bursts.

"If I get there first I'll tell you." Emmett smiled half-heartedly, his dimples not dipping in.

I sat back in the chair and crossed my arms again. "Are you all right?" I looked up from under my heavy lids, exhaustion making itself known.

"No," he admitted. "But I'll get there. Fake it till you make it, Bella."

"Fake it till you make it, Emmett." I repeated.

He put his big hand on the table, palm up, and wiggled his fingers. I reached over and put my hand in his, squeezing it tightly.

"I love you, Bells. Nothing bad's gonna happen." he promised, squeezing back.

I almost believed him, till the door bell rang.

I got up and opened the door to find a suit wearing woman with a clipboard. That was never a good combination.

"Hi, I'm Bree. I'm from Child Protective Services." The dark haired woman said pleasantly, her bleached white teeth all showing. We were in big trouble now. I stepped back to let her inside, taking her ugly overcoat from her and hanging it up.

"Isabella I presume?" I nodded. "I need to speak with your older brother, Emmett. Is he here?" she said, her voice sickly sweet. I nodded but before I had a chance to move, Emmett appeared in the doorway to the kitchen, arms folded.

"You're not splitting us up and we're sure as hell not going into foster care." he stated bluntly. Bree's smile dropped very slightly but she kept it in check as best she could.

"We have a lot to discuss. May I sit down?" she asked, still pleasant. Emmett nodded and led her into the kitchen to the table. He held up his hand to keep me from following.

"Let me handle this, just try to find a way to entertain yourself for a few minutes." he said, not an ounce of playfulness in his voice. It wasn't the most comforting feeling in the world. I nodded and walked over to the sofa in hopes of keeping my mind off all the shit we would have to face very soon.

**Edward POV**

_WHACK_!

"Come down you bastard of a thing!" I growled through my teeth still hitting the stupid contraption in front of me.

"Jesus Christ, Edward! Just pay for the fucking candy and leave it alone! You're going to draw attention over here." Jasper rolled his eyes as he watched my assault on the innocent vending machine. I gave him my deadliest glare before returning my attention to my goal. It would be mine if I had to bust the front out of the damn machine.

I bashed it again with the bottom of my fist. "Fuck paying for it, if I hit it hard enough—" _WHACK_! "The stupid bar will come down—" _WHACK_! "Just like always!" _WHACK_!

"It's obviously not going to work this time so pick another machine before you get your ass kicked out of the game tonight." He pointed along to the other two machines. I didn't even bother to look up from my mission.

"I want—" _WHACK_! "This one." _WHACK_!

The energy bar dropped down and I plucked it out of the tray, completely crushing it in my hand.

"There, happy now?" he asked with an exasperated sigh following it. He stared at the crushed thing in my hand and rolled his eyes.

"No I'm not." I said as I tossed it straight across the room into the trash can and stormed over to the cafeteria table.

"Hey, Edward," Lauren greeted me as I slid out my chair. I pulled my lips tighter but didn't show and teeth. Today was not a day for her to get on my nerves.

"Haemorrhoids have returned I see." she mumbled under her breath.

I paused for a moment mid descent—surprised by her tone— then sat in my chair.

She'd had a misplaced crush on me since we were fourteen, an interest I'd never reciprocated. It usually meant she was unwaveringly tolerant of whatever mood I was in at the time on the microscopic chance I'd pay her a lick of attention. But she was too much like Tanya, there was no hope.

A hand slapped the side of my head then went down my side to my pocket. There was only one person in this _state_ that had the guts to do that so I didn't even move or turn my head to look at her.

"Next time you take _anything_ of mine without asking I'm going to cut off one inch of your body every minute till you're _dead_," Alice growled in my ear and took her phone out of my pocket. "I don't know what your problem is but it's not my fault!"

She stormed off to her friends without another word or a glance back in my direction.

"Pissed Off Day at the Cullen house, huh?" Mike asked. "PMS all round."

"Newton. Shut up." I spat, my patience was non-existent today.

"Mood elevators have stopped working then." he continued despite my venom filled tone.

Mike Newton, too many kicks to the skull in Forks High's football team. Never won a single game in five years seeing as they can't practice for ten months of the year. It's more like mud football anyway. They're all padded up like little bitches, slipping and sliding around in the sludge that is our oval.

I ignored his comment, looking out over the cafeteria instead. It was packed as usual, no chance of sitting outside in the rain that—although light at the moment—could come pelting down at any second.

Forks was the hide-away town for the womanizing business men of Seattle. It was close enough that they would travel home every weekend but far enough away that their wives couldn't execute spur of the moment raids on their husbands offices.

Jessica Stanley was the child of one such father. Her father was some big wig that came home every weekend without fail and slipped out early on Monday mornings to make the drive of pride with the rest of the men.

Pride that they'd done it again without so much as a hint of suspicion.

Jessica was well aware of this, as were most of the children and the wives; it's just that nobody talks about it. The wives don't want to have to go through a divorce, and the children just write it off as something that happens with adults.

"It's nice to see that you're back to your usual self, Edward." Jessica sighed. She never sat down at lunch, claimed it was her time to get the wrinkles out of her outfit. It wasn't like her outfits were anything worth looking at anyway.

She probably doesn't have any room to move once she gets the apple into her stomach. She looks almost unnaturally thin today.

Eating less or barfing more, that is the question.

Some group of friends I've got. The love-sick bitch, the moron, the anorexic-bulimic, and Jasper.

I looked up to him in that moment right as he made the, Are you all right? face. I shrugged and half nodded. He raised his eyebrows disbelievingly and tilted his head in Alice's direction, indicating our exchange a few minutes ago. I rolled my eyes and shook my head a little, telling him not to worry about it.

Jasper and I met on my first day of school here. He'd walked up and asked if I could run and bounce a ball at the same time. I replied with a comment about not being a spastic. He said I had decent muscle tone. I asked him if he was gay. He punched me in the jaw and we were friends and team mates that afternoon when I tried out for the basketball team. Funny what a swift punch in the face will do for you.

"You ready for the game tomorrow?" Jasper asked.

"When am I ever not? Reputation alone is enough to make them forfeit. What was it last time? They lost because…"

"The bus took an especially rough turn and they all had stiff necks." He smirked.

"Right!" I held up my finger and nodded. "That's the one."

"Should be interesting. So…" He leaned back in his chair and got his _inquisition_ face on. "What's up with you today?"

"Nothing." I muttered.

"Doesn't look like nothing, you look really pissed about something."

"I'm not." I denied instantly, but gave myself away when I rolled my eyes.

"Worried?"

"No."

"Nauseated?" he asked jokingly.

"What the fuck?" I laughed despite myself.

"You mellowed out for a couple of days and now you're… you again." he explained.

"And it didn't occur to you that for the couple of days when I was different that maybe that was when something was wrong?" I raised my eyebrow then shook my head before he could reply. "I'm fine, really."

Jasper pursed his lips and hummed disbelievingly. "You just did it again."

"Yeah, I know…" I mumbled. "Do you ever have days when you wake up and just want to be an asshole for no other reason than because you can?"

He nodded impassively. "Everyone does."

"Ever had it happen every morning for five years?" I inquired.

"Hmmm, no. But ya know, you're just stressed out and—"

"No," I interjected. "I have nothing to be stressed about, my father's some doctoring prodigy from a line of gifts to the world of medicine therefore meaning I'm a fucking rich kid from birth—"

"It also means you have that pressure on your shoulders to be like him and your grandfather and his father and so on."

"It's not pressure because I know I can do it. I actually resent the world for telling me how smart I am. I could be anything, I can do whatever I want, I have the world at my feet; just waiting for me to take it. Sometimes, I just wanna play baseball like the rest of you guys." I realized I was having a moment and should probably pin something snipey on the end. Who knows why I didn't.

Jasper laughed beside me, looking almost as surprised at my lack of a rude comment as I was. "Edward, you suck at baseball." he pointed out, still laughing lightly.

I laughed too, knowing he was right, but he missed the point," I know. But you see, it's the only thing I've found that I am truly bad at, but you know what, I love that. Having something I fail at. It's nice for once to bust your ass for something and still fail at it by the end of the day. It's the same feeling you get when you actually succeed at something."

And there was the snide comment I missed earlier.

Jasper nodded slowly, seemingly understanding till I saw the smirk forming. "Well fuck. Aren't you a whiny bastard. You're good at everything you do. Have a cry about it."

"I'm good at that too." I smirked back at him. Jasper rolled his eyes and turned away from me to listen to the meaningless conversation between Jessica and Mike. He must have been trying to find an after game fling. More power to him, there was no way I would travel down that path, or the path next to her for that matter. I glanced over at Lauren.

Jasper had a point though. I was complaining because I was actually good at what I did. Maybe it's just some human need to complain about my life every so often. Really, what was so bad about it? I have everything I could ever want or need and I'm overly intelligent without putting forth any effort. For Christ's sake, I'm Edward-motherfucking-Cullen and I can do whatever I want.

Right now, I just want to whoop the shit out of the Port Angeles High basketball team.

**Bella POV**

_What are they doing in there_? I looked across the hallway to the kitchen. Emmett and sunshine-pouring-out-of-her-ass Bree were still sitting at the table after an hour and a half. Talking, writing, calling people. At least he didn't look too pissed off. Must be going well if he hasn't rammed his fist onto the table yet.

I glanced down at the laptop screen. I had my mom's Facebook account—that she had no clue how to use—pulled up. I was debating whether or not it would be too morbid to change her status to: _Is dead_.

_That'd make one helluva Facebook alert if I do say so myself._

I doubt she would approve but it'd lighten my mood slightly, I was sure of it. Instead, I wrote a short but informative inbox message to all of her friends and then logged out as soon as I sent it. Sending the message was one thing, I did not need all the condolences that would follow shortly after. Too many people who didn't even know her personally sending me messages to say how sorry they are for my loss.

I logged into my account, immediately logging out of chat to avoid messages from whoever was online. I didn't want to deal with anyone, much less a million people telling me how sorry they are for me.

_Nadine Sumners wrote something on your wall._

_Vivienne Cruzer wrote something on your wall._

_Isabella Dwyer might impale her head on a rusty fence post if this continues._

This is what the world has come to. The phone is completely silent but Facebook is buzzing up a storm over the premature passing of my mother.

I went into the settings and changed the notifications so I wouldn't see it every time someone wrote on my wall. For a second, I actually considered deleting my profile all together, but there really was no point in putting forth the effort. I just signed out of it instead and moved on to other websites.

"Bella?" Bree snapped me out of my reverie.

"Ah huh." I looked up, closing the laptop quickly. She was standing about two feet away from me, that ugly fake smile still plastered across her face.

"You brother seems quite adamant about not allowing the state to take you into custody, but his age is… a problem." She said quietly, Emmett was still in the kitchen, bouncing his leg rapidly like he always did when he was losing his patience.

"Yeah." I nodded.

"He's willing to take on legal guardianship of you but it will have to go through the courts and there's the matter of where you would be the safest in the mean time." She sat down on the chair opposite me and I closed the computer, knowing this was going to be some kind of win me over discussion. Trying to convince me to go to a nice foster home. I recognized the tone from when my dad was alive and talked me into doing all kinds of things a child is supposed to do but doesn't want to do. Like taking a bath for instance.

I decided to make a preemptive strike. "I'd be safest with my brother, who understands what I'm going through at the moment, actually cares about me, and is in the same position of loss. I know what happens now, I'm sure he told you about our father and before you say it I know you're very sorry and I don't mean to sound rude but I really can't hear it. The real question is, are you going to have me forcibly removed? I won't go willingly, if that's what you were expecting."

Bree stood there, a little stunned by the looks of it, the smile finally wiped from her face. "That's what I'm trying to determine." She told me quietly.

"And?" I glanced momentarily over her shoulder to Emmett, he was still fidgeting in the chair, possibly trying to keep from grabbing me and running out of the front door into the woods. It's not as if they would ever find us out in that.

"And I get the impression that anyone that tries to split you two up is going to be met with, well your brother. As much as I admire how fiercely he is protecting you, it might not be what's best in the long run."

"But growing up without the only family I've got left is a better option? I've lost my father and my mother and you expect me to just turn the other cheek and lose my brother just as easily?" I questioned, she probably wasn't the person to get angry with but she was there and she was trying to make my life even worse.

"You have an aunt in the UK," She reminded me. "You and your brother both could go there and still be a family together."

Ah yes, Aunt Caroline, so prissy she moved to England in order to put a stick even further up her ass. She decided that she was more fitting to a country with an actual royal family. "I have an estranged relative in the UK." I corrected.

"Have you contacted her? Told her the news?"

"I sent a mass message. When she'll see it is another matter, but yes, I've sent word to her about my mom." I nodded.

"Would you be willing to live with her?" She asked hopefully. I guess she thought pretending to care would make her job easier. Not hardly.

"She'd more than likely stick me in a yellow primrose dress, a striped headband in my hair and a string of pearls around my neck. It'd be like being a porcelain doll to her. No." I explained my reasons for wanting to run in the opposite direction of wherever my aunt was. She even faked her accent.

"And if that became the only option for you and your brother to stay together?" Bree pushed, her smile picking up again slightly.

"Surely there has to be a horse stable nearby? I don't know about Emmett but I won't complain." I said seriously.

Her lips twitched in the corners to make a small smile and she nodded slowly. "I see,"—she quickly wrote something on her clipboard then looked back up to me with her face even again—"Well we'll talk to her, see if we can make some kind of arrangement." I guess Bree wasn't going to take anything I said into account. Who was surprised? She smiled at me again before showing herself to the door. Taking her hideous overcoat from the peg, she nodded to both me and Emmett and stepped outside into the misting rain, closing the door behind her with a soft click. As soon as I heard her car leave the driveway, I thought back to life with my estranged aunt again.

_Oh God, I can see it now. "Of course I'll care for the little darlings," She would say in her faux-English accent. "Pop them on a plane and they can come here. Now if you don't mind I'm going to watch some telly in the lift while sipping tea."_

"Great." I muttered sharply, pursing my lips as I looked back over to Emmett who was now staring at the kitchen table.

Without a word, Emmett left his chair, still tense, and flopped down on the couch next to me, wrapping me in his arms. _I'll run and live in the woods before I'm sent to the UK to live with the crazy hag that is my mother's sister. Just wait and see._ Emmett nodded and for a second, I wondered if I'd spoken out loud.

_Maybe I will reach insanity before he does.

* * *

_Holy crap! It's out! It's really out! Thank you again to the fantastic, the wonderful, the slightly twisted—but oh-so-lovable—Diana Law.

A link to her profile on mine, great stories—as if you'd expect anything else ;)


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